Why? Because most people are not proficient touch typists and because a pocket book sized tablet is big enough for normal typing and small enough to streamline the writing process. The biggest obstacle for speedy typing on an iPhone is the size of the virtual keyboard. On a tablet, your fingers should have ample space to perform all of their typing related duties within a conveniently sized area.

If you grab a pocket book and rest your fingers over the surface of the book as it lies horizontally on a table, you will find that there is room for two hands over a decent sized keyboard. There is still space left over for the text you are writing, and this text will be very close to the actual virtual keyboard.

The last thing is important — at least for the majority of users who cannot write reliably without looking at the keyboard. On a device where the text appear immediately adjacent to the keyboard, you gain an important edge: you will be able to monitor and manipulate what you are typing without having to lift your head to look at a screen half a meter away.

Instead, you can quickly glance at the exact spot where you are writing to confirm that you are not making any mistakes, meaning corrections will be faster, but more importantly, since you now are monitoring your typing much more closely, using both touch and vision, you will make fewer mistakes.

LOWER ERROR RATE

When I am writing a text on a desktop computer, I frequently lose track of where my fingers are resting and where in the text I am currently writing.

On a tablet I would be able to keep track of both, keeping my gaze in a small area. With a little training and good on-screen feedback, I imagine my error rate will go down, my speed of typing will go up, and I will not constantly have to engage in laborious error correction, forcing me to grab the mouse to highlight the error, look at the keyboard to find the right keys, type the correction, check that it appeared at the right position, then grab the mouse to put the cursor where I want to continue writing, look back at the keyboard, and start writing again.

On a tablet, all this activity will take place within a small space in my field of vision, and I do not have to grab a mouse or any other devices thanks to the convenience of having my fingers directly attached to my hands.

Touch typists will most likely not fall in love with a normally configured touch screen keyboard — their fingers may get lost on the glassy surface — but the possibility exists to create a user configurable keyboard that is mapped exactly to the users anatomy as the fingers rest in their most comfortable position on the screen, mapping extra key positions that are just in the right place so that the user reliably and comfortably could hit them, creating a optimally designed personal keyboard which could be used without looking. I could imagine a typist could learn to type faster on such a personally adapted keyboard than a normal physical keyboard. You could even envisage a keyboard that senses where your fingers are, automatically adjusting itself to the user.

For the unfortunate majority who has not yet mastered touch typing, myself included, it is difficult to find the right balance between the time your eyes spend on the screen or on the keyboard. If I concentrate on the keyboard, errors can go undetected, which means I constantly have to go back and weed out these errors. On a tablet, I could keep my eyes on the onscreen keyboard and still immediately see any spelling error notifications in the written text, directly adjacent to the touch screen keyboard.

SPEED

If you are accustomed to hammering away with great gusto at a noisy keyboard, a flat glassy surface will not give you the same satisfaction, but the less vigourous touch screen typing should lead to an economy of motion that can be expected to bolster typing speed.

You may lose some speed if the touch screen does not detect your finger instantly as you touch the surface, but the touch screens that Apple currently are churning out are quite fast and responsive, so this should not be a problem provided the touch technology reliably can detect the touch of a finger. Any extremities used for typing need to be alive and well and not exceedingly dry. Mummified Egyptians 1 might find reason to complain — unless they are wet and slimy. The screen works by detecting changes in an electric charge at the surface, so a wet mummy would have a better writing experience than a dry one.

SPEED TESTS

I wrote the same text on a 3.0.1 iPhone 3G S (in landscape mode) and compared this to an ordinary iMac keyboard. iMac text entry was at 43 words per minute and iPhone text input was at 32 words per minute.

Yes, I am an abysmally slow typist, but I find the speed I achieved on the cramped iPhone screen to be respectable, especially since I have virtually no previous experience of touch screen typing. On a much larger tablet, I think it is not unreasonable to expect my speed to approach or even overtake the 43 words per minute score. I could only use two to three fingers on the iPhone, compared to the 8-10 fingers I abnormally use when typing on a regular keyboard.

A tablet with an onscreen touch keyboard is a very adaptable creature compared to the dinosaurian desktop computer or the laptop. The keyboard can take any shape you want. If you are writing with the tablet resting on a desk, you could use a normal keyboard configuration, such as a normal Qwerty 2 or the speedier Dvorak simplified keyboard. 3 If you hold the tablet in your hands, you might automatically be presented with a special thumb-operated keyboard, enabling you to write at very respectable speeds from the sides of the device using two thumbs. If you are at home, you could also use a dock and a keyboard.

And there are other options. The screen of the new Apple tablet can be expected to be large enough to make handwriting recognition work well even when you are writing with a chubby finger rather than a stylus.

Maybe the time is ripe for the old rickety keyboard to go the scrap heap, joining other retired devices such as floppy disks and typewriters. If Apple has managed to meet the design goals of low power consumption and high usability, perhaps laptops and netbooks can go the same way.

And why not throw away the office chairs and desks while we’re at it? Touchscreen technology could spawn completely new kinds of furniture, sporting relaxed reclining writing positions with hands-up armrests.

Combine this with heads-up displays and you could sleep very comfortably at the office while still appearing to be hard at work.

No?

I’ll admit I think desktop computers will keep their traditional keyboards for a long time, but mobile devices need to get rid of them as fast as they can.

1. 1 The Curse Of The Mummy, Heritage Key. ¶
2. 2 The Curse of Qwerty, Jared Diamond. ¶
3. 3 Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, Wikipedia. ¶

I don’t like all products of our industrial civilization, but some can improve life in many ways. Even a simple thing as an old tin can and a bit of ingenuity can improve life for millions of people.

What am I talking about?

Downdraft wood gasifiers built from tin cans. These little beasts burn wood very efficiently, without smoke, and are able to utilize wood for cooking vastly better than traditional means of cooking over an open fire. The difference is simply staggering.

I came across a very good version of tin can wood burners based on downdraft gasification made by the Youtube user toys4guns.

I don’t know exactly why, but I really like these instructional videos; besides the elegant and very clean and simple design, there is something soothing about it all. Could be the Pink Floyd music in the background or the calm narrative, or the fact that a guy tinkering with tin cans actually can make big difference in the lives of other people on the other side of the globe. Comments from places like Indonesia, indicate as much.

Besides improving everyday life by minimizing the chores of wood gathering and eliminating the risks of smoke inhalation, YouTube user toys4guns is helping to preserve forests and wildlife and perhaps ultimately lessening the effects of global warming using a few tin cans and a lot of ingenuity.

Good work, toys4guns!

Here are the videos:

If the manufacturers of canned food would stop using bisphenol-A 1 in the lining of the cans, I would be an even happier camper.

1. 1 Industry Programmed Our Kids For Obesity, Bruce Maynard, Newswyrdy. ¶

A telltale sign was a recent article by Michael Ledeen in the Wall Street Journal, where he claims that the United States have tried negotiations and sanctions to no avail for 30 years and that regime change now is the only possible way forward. The article was published September 29, 2009, just before the start of the negotiations with Iran about its nuclear program.

It is just an example of a long line of articles, studies and publications that push for war and destabilization in the Middle-East. There is a red thread that connects all this with the current administration and its policies towards Iran. If you walk up to this red line as it enters the White House and give it a sharp yank, a man named Dennis Ross will come tumbling out of the White House and from the other end of the line, a document from 2008 will come flying back through time. Both will tell you that the negotiations with Iran were intended to fail. They were going to be the last punctuation mark in the dialog between the West and the current Iranian regime. The stage was set up for war. Since the Iranian nuclear sites are spread across the country and well protected, this would mean nuclear strikes and heavy civilian casualties.

What happened? Miraculously, the first talks defused some of the tension. Agreements were made concerning inspections and enrichment. Low-enriched uranium produced in Iran is to be transported to third countries for further enrichment and fabrication into fuel assemblies for the Tehran research reactor, which produces isotopes for medical applications. Further negotiations are planned.

Is all well and good now?

I am afraid not. The neocons are already jumping up and down, steaming with disappointment, claiming negotiations are a waste of time and that Iran cannot be trusted; that they are stalling and will be developing their nuclear technology secretly.

The plans were laid for decisive action — at a minimum in the form of an attack on the nuclear installations — hoping this would lead to regime change in the end. And this threat is still very real, if lessened substantially for the moment. The problem is that these plans have been in operation for a long time now, and there are substantial benefits to be reaped for the powerful interests behind the scenes that is pushing this agenda. They will not back down. The President and his Nobel Peace Price is all that is standing in the way of this machinery of doom.

Or is he?

WHY?

How did we get so close to military actions against Iran? Interestingly, Michael Ledeen, the author of the Wall Street Journal article, might very well be involved in the sequence of events that has brought us up to this point. If you are aware of his involvement, the main thrust of the article and the timing of its publication suggests that he knew an attack on Iran was imminent:

Thirty years of negotiations and sanctions have failed to end the Iranian nuclear program and its war against the West. Why should anyone think they will work now? A change in Iran requires a change in government.We’ve Been Talking to Iran for 30 Years, Michael Ledeen, The Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2009

I am going to try to show how it ties in with a long running US plan for the Middle East and the recent events in Iran.

THE IRANIAN ELECTION

Now, when the dust has settled after the unrest in Iran, the time is ripe to have a look at what actually happened. News reports at the time were tainted by efforts to influence the outcome of the unrest, so, depending on if you live in the West, East, or in the Middle-East, you would have vastly different views of what really occurred. The big divide seems to be between the West and the rest of the world, which is not surprising if you consider the real reasons behind the events in Iran.

To the United States, the unrest in Iran was not so much about a struggle for democracy and protests against a repressive fundamentalist regime, instead it represented the last realistic chance for the USA to save itself from slipping down into an abyss of economic chaos and relative insignificance. The Iranian election was a hub in a power struggle between the United States and a number of countries with an agenda to significantly reduce US influence in the Middle East and in the world as a whole.

It is all revolving around a man with an unpronounceable name and a scruffy suit: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran. He might not wield the same power as “The Supreme Leader,” but he is passionate about undermining US economic and military power in the region and by the looks of it — he is succeeding.

THE S.C.O.

He is not alone. Others are working towards the same goal. The threat arises mainly from an organization named The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the members of which, if Iran is included, controls two-thirds of the world’s energy sources in the form of oil and gas. They threaten to dismantle the US dollars role as a reserve currency and oil transaction currency. This would spell doom in big capital letters for the already troubled United States economy. More about the significance of that later…

It is now hard to seriously claim that the United States did not have a hand in stimulating and organizing the unrest following the election in Iran. Too much was at stake for the US not to take the chance to do something about the current regime. It is a logical conclusion of a well-publicized program that was started during the Bush administration with the aim of destabilizing Iran in order to bring about regime change. This explains the extreme bias in the news reporting of major western news organizations as well as the total silence about the wider scenario. The current US administration is getting very nervous. They are using all available means, covert or overt, to destabilize the Iranian regime.

SIGNS OF FOREIGN INVOLVEMENT AND MEDIA MANIPULATION

To go out on the streets and protest against a torturing and repressive regime takes courage. We should celebrate the struggle for democracy and freedom in Iran, but in doing that, we also need to be very serious about identifying any attempts by the world’s super powers to manipulate and use protesters as pawns in their geopolitical games.

Suggestions of election fraud were instrumental in getting large numbers of protesters out on the streets. Were these early claims truthful or fabrications by certain interest to fan the flames of revolt? There is still no conclusive proof of any large scale election fraud, and you must ask yourself why Moussavi announced himself to be the winner already on the night of the election and why the Moussavi camp was urging protesters to take to the streets even before the election had started.

When the regime responded to all this by issuing a very early report on the election results, this was cited as proof of manipulation by the regime, and very few fingers were pointed in the general direction of Mousavi and his premature declarations.

So far, none of the statistical efforts to find proof of election fraud hold up to scrutiny.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the 2009 election by about the same number of votes as he did in the 2005 presidential election. The most reliable poll performed before the 2009 election showed he was leading by more than a 2 to 1 margin over Mousavi. 1

Why then did we see an army of experts pronouncing that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad couldn’t have won by such a wide margin? 2

The Western media overstated the surge of his main opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi over the last couple of weeks. They missed almost entirely how Ahmadinejad was perceived to have won the television debate, for instance. There was an extraordinary amount of wishful thinking on the part of American and Western policymakers.Flynt Leverett, one of the foremost experts on Iran and the Middle East in Washington in an interview in Spiegel Online.

Or was it more than wishful thinking?

• Already on May 16, 2007, during the Bush administration, John Bolton talked to the London Telegraph about planned attempts to foment a popular revolution.
• On May 27, 2007, the Telegraph wrote about “CIA plans for a propaganda and disinformation campaign intended to destabilize, and eventually topple, the theocratic rule of the mullahs.”
• We know he US congress approved 400 million dollars for covert CIA operations in Iran with the aim to destabilize the regime.
• Before the election in Iran, neoconservative Kenneth Timmerman mentioned there has been talk of a “green revolution” in Tehran. Timmerman’s organization, Foundation for Democracy, is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is known for sponsoring other color revolutions around the world.
• Why did Mousavi announce himself the winner already on the night of the election?
• How can we be expected to believe that the regime would endeavor to launch a large scale vote rigging campaign, when they knew Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was expected to win by a large margin?
• Why did the Mousavi camp claim that the election is going to be rigged already a few weeks before the vote?
• Why did Rafsanjani’s wife say people should pour into the streets if Moussavi didn’t win?
• Why did Moussavi’s wife publicly talk about fraud directly after casting her vote?
• Why were Twitter feeds filled with fake images and distorted information, all serving to fan the flames of revolt? 3

Why was there is almost no objective reporting to be found among major western news organizations? Statements from the Mousavi camp was treated as absolute truth and the Iranian government’s claims were immediately classified as lies and propaganda. Articles on Mousavi on Wikipedia sounds like campaign-material straight from his own web page. 4 5

Maybe a regime that is rounding up, killing, and torturing dissidents is not to be trusted, but what has Mr Mousavi done to earn our respect? It turns out he is actually a bird of the same feather. In the 1980’s, he served as the fifth and last Prime Minister in Iran and during that time…

… Peaceful demonstrations were crushed. Mock courts held few minute trials followed by executions. Thousands of young teenagers were arrested, tortured and executed for political charges as trivial as possessing a pamphlet. Under Mousavi´s watch a total of 90,000 were executed. Young girls were systematic raped before execution (per a religious decree so their souls would not reach heaven). Numerous faculty and students (under the banner of the Cultural Revolution) were purged from the universities. Repression of religious minorities intensified. Independent newspapers were shut down. Political activists not affiliated with the ruling ayatollahs were arrested in masses. His government even initiated assassination of the opposition figures abroad. Under his watch a destructive and unnecessary war with Iraq was continued. In the fronts underage children were used as “mine sweepers”. Under his government, the regime´s aspirations for regional hegemony and export of terrorism were formalized and action plans masterminded. The founder of Lebanon´s Hezbollah Ali Akbar Mohtashami was his interior minister. Mousavi´s government was directly responsible for the 1983 truck-bombing attacks on the U.S. embassy in Lebanon. His government initiated the Iranian regime´s strive for the nuclear bomb. The crown of his government´s accomplishments was mass execution of about 30,000 defenseless political prisoners within a few weeks with bodies buried in mass graves. 6— Kazem Kazerounian, Forgive Mousavi, But Never Forget His Name, The American Chronicle
June 24, 2009,

It needs to be pointed out that Mousavi’s position as prime minister did not grant him any powers to order torture or executions. As a prime minister in Iran during the 80’s, you had limited powers compared to what usually is the case in western countries, but it is ironic that Mousavi participated in the creation of the current Iranian theocracy, and now he is calling his supporters to tear down the very power structures he helped create. It is also a little odd that the West suddenly starts describing him as a moderate, a freedom-fighter and a reformer, when he used to be called a radical terrorist-supporting anti-American at best.

Indeed, anyone believing Mousavi would be the one to unclench the Iranian fist for a hand-in-hand partnership of peace with the United States is guilty of wishful thinking. It was Mousavi, after all, who was at the center of the Iran hostage crisis and remains complicit in an operation he commended as “the beginning of the second stage of our revolution.” And it was Mousavi who was the protégé of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (chief architect of the Iranian Revolution and founder of theocratic Iran), a former member of Hezbollah’s leadership council, sworn enemy of Israel, and a prime minister under whose watch thousands of political prisoners were massacred in 1988. And finally, it was Mousavi who initiated Iran’s nuclear program in the 1980s and likely would be intent on carrying through Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the foremost issue central to any improvement in relations with the West.— Imagining President Mousavi — Would Iran be any different under new management?, Ranj Alaaldin, Foreign Policy, Posted June 2009.

There was very little mention of Mousavi’s past in western news reports before the election or during the protests after the election. Instead, he was uniformly portrayed as a selfless saviour of the oppressed Iranian people. When you see all major news channels completely leaving objectivity behind, not even pretending to be objective, when Wikipedia pages are turned into propaganda for one of the candidates, a warning bell should go off in your mind.

Why didn’t anyone point out that he himself helped create the oppression he was supposed to dismantle? Why was there no mention of Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s possible involvement in the terrorist attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine Corps Baracks in Beirut? 7 Why is there very little mention of US goals or the bigger picture in the region?

Perhaps because it would shine a light into a very dark corner, and few would welcome the illumination, including the courageous Iranian protesters that may very well have been deceived to risk their life for reasons that fundamentally had very little to do with democracy or freedom.

If the US enthusiastically support a candidate whose track record is just as bad as the opponent, that in itself suggests there is more to the story than what meets the eye.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE US-LED DESTABILIZATION OF IRAN

Because of the nature of covert operations, it will take time to prove conclusively that the unrest in Iran partly was sponsored or instigated by foreign powers, but there is a long list of facts and events that strongly suggest this might be the case, and we do know the USA has a long history of supporting coups and running black operations in countries all over the world, including Iran. 8

We know for a fact that covert operations against Iran were launched under the Bush administration. The US congress recently approved 400 million dollars for covert operations in Iran to destabilize the regime. These operations are very likely still active and we know they included provisions for the use of lethal violence in Iran. 9 10 11

Mir Hossein Mousavi’s green revolution share many similarities with other US-backed “color revolutions” in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia. 12.

We have seen the scripts for these covert operations and coups play out over and over in different countries, and remarkably, major news organizations still do not recognize that this could be what is happening in Iran.

These CIA-led affairs usually involve a call to peaceful protest, then it turns out that a large part of the protesters are paid to be violent. Then the organizers of the attempted coup kill a number of their own peaceful protesters using plain-clothed snipers, blaming the current government for the deeds.

I was curious, I wanted to go out and see what was happening. I saw that it was us protesting who were making the riots. We set on fire public property, we threw stones, we attacked people’s cars and we broke windows of people’s houses.”Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Iranian Opposition Tarred By Public Confessions From Arrested Protesters

Forced “confession” or the truth? It is hard to judge, but there have been reports that the US-backed terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) has played a big role in the post-election street violence in Iran. 13

RAFSANJANI AND MOUSAVI — TIES TO THE CIA

Rafsanjani and Mousavi have ties to the CIA that goes back to the Iran-Contra affair, so few eyebrows need to be raised about any new deals between the CIA and Mousavi. There is a connection between Mousavi and Michael Ledeen 14 15 16, a neoconservative with an agenda against Iran that is very clear: “the time for diplomacy is at an end; it is time for a free Iran, free Syria and free Lebanon.” and his recipy for peace in the middle-east is total war:

The purpose of total war is to permanently force your will onto another people.

Other noteworthy quotes are:

The defence of the country is one of those extreme situation in which a leader is justified in committing evil.

Stability is an unworthy American mission, and a misleading concept to boot. We do not want stability in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and even Saudi Arabia; we want things to change. The real issue is not whether, but how to destabilize.Michael Ledeen, Wall Street Journal, 9/4/2002

In 2003, Ledeen set up the Coalition for Democracy in Iran (CDI), which is an action group focusing on producing regime change in Iran. 17 18 He also claims that Iran is the main backer of the insurgency in Iraq. It is as if the US policies towards Iraq and Iran were almost entirely a creation of Michael Ledeen. He has been called “the most influential and unabashed warmonger of our time.”

Mousavi’s connection to Ledeen goes back to the Iran-Contras affair via his friendship with Manuchehr Ghorbanifar (who is an Iranian arms merchant, a former CIA informant, and allegedly a MOSSAD double agent). 19 20

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF NEDA AGHA SOLTAN?

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, told worshippers at Tehran University: “I want the judiciary to … punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson.” Ominously, he used the term “mohareb” – “one who wages war against God” – a crime punishable by death.

Khatami’s sermon, broadcast live on state TV, included accusations that the unrest was supported by Israel and the US, and that foreign journalists had reported falsely. He claimed Neda Agha Soltan, who became a symbol of the opposition when her death was caught on video, was a victim of protesters, not the security forces. “Government forces do not shoot at a lady standing in a side street,” he said.Iran opposition alleges plot to implicate Mir Hossein Mousavi, Robert Tait and Ian Black, The Guardian.

It doesn’t make any sense for the Iranian government to target and gruesomely kill a young girl in an area where there were very little protests, but it makes more sense for any groups that want to fan the flames of unrest to target an unusually beautiful young girl and then blame the government for the shooting. If you already have created the picture of a murdering repressive regime, you know it will work. No one is going to consider any other possibilities — even though this tactic is a tried and tested method used by the CIA over the years. It was used as recently as in the CIA-led coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 2002, the events of which bear a striking resemblance to what has happened in Iran. 21

So who killed Neda Agha Soltan? If she was killed by a US bullet, this ultimately means president Barack Obama killed her, since he allowed the destabilization plans to remain in operation. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney took aim and Obama pulled the trigger. 22 23

What did Obama say in his New Year’s message to Iran? He expressed a wish for an “engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.” He also warned Iran that it cannot take its rightful place in the community of nations through terror or arms.

Let’s see now…The US kills innocent civilians in Iran through terrorist bombings performed by the US-sponsored terrorist groups like the MEK, Jundallah, and the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). So, Obama sends a reconciliatory message to Iran but at the same time he supports terrorism in Iran and Black Ops to overthrow the Iranian government, possibly even using snipers to kill demonstrators, including an innocent young Iranian girl. What did he say? Honest and grounded in mutual respect?

HONESTY

With all this in mind, his address to the people and regime of Iran could be one of the most deceitful and shamelessly dishonest messages from an American president ever:

There is only one possible explanation that explains the New Year’s message from Obama to Iran. It is clear that Iran knows about the US plans to promote unrest in Iran and the US administration is of course aware that the Iranians know about it. 24

The message was not directed towards the leaders of Iran; it was targeted to the Iranian people and western media and the message had several functions: It was intended to help the less US-critical Mousavi in the election. And if Mousavi didn’t win, all they need to do is activate the plans for generating unrest as well as their schemes for replacing the current regime. If this was to fail, then the US administration could always say: “We offered dialog and reconciliation, but they responded by stealing an election and killing peaceful protestors, proving all they want is conflict. Well, lets give them what they want.” Tomahawk missiles and Stealth bombers again scream across the skies.

WAR OR NEGOTIATIONS

We saw Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama declare that they were ready to engage with Iran in a dialog about its nuclear program, but they also set a deadline before which Iran must respond to US offers to negotiate and made demands they knew Iran would not agree to.

This follows a script you can find in a report authored in 2008, a script that is designed to lead to war with Iran. The report is named “Meeting the Challenge - U.S. policy toward Iranian nuclear development” and it basically is a roadmap to war with Iran. Anyone who wants to understand the administration’s policies towards Iran need to read this and a few other related reports. If you do, you will see that their recommendations in these reports are implemented one by one by the Obama administration, inexorably inching us forward to the intended end point which is war in some shape or form.

We know the architects behind this strategy. One of them is Dennis Ross and he now works for the administration as a special adviser on the Gulf and Southwest Asia, diligently working to implement the strategy he helped create. 25 26 27 28 29

Sponsoring efforts to violently overthrow the current Iranian regime may not be the best way of stimulating a dialog. It tells us that dialog or negotiations are not seen as important. A military “solution” is preferred and this should not be a secret to anyone; the strategy has been out in the open for a long time. But why then did the talks with Iran result in a lessening of the tension? Why did Obama back down on the demands for total cessation of uranium enrichment? Is he not committed to the plan?

Even if he is, he still would find it hard to take an unreasonable standpoint in talks held jointly with other superpowers. It is also entirely possible that the script now has evolved into a version that is more attuned the fact that there now is very little support for military strikes on Iran. In order to insulate the USA from the fallout of an attack under these circumstances, another actor must step in and do the dirty work for the United States, eventually leaving Obama with the task of setting up a new regime in Iran, an operation that is going to run much more smoothly if the United States is not implicated in the attacks on Iran and instead is seen as wanting to normalize relations. A nuclear variation of the bad cop, good cop routine…

When Obama says that “we’re not going to have talks forever” with Iran and that the administration would not rule out “a range of steps.” — we know why. We have already read parts of the manuscript.

Obama’s “friendly” New Year’s message to Iran is a prelude to war. The tremendous wave of disinformation in the news is also a sign the US hasn’t scrapped the plans to attack Iran. The growing web of lies about the Iranian nuclear program 30 31 32 and the lies about Iranian weapons being smuggled to Iraq, 33 34 35 is all part of an ongoing demonization of Iran with the ultimate aim of launching a war or some form of limited military strikes against Iran’s nuclear installations 36 — now that they failed to oust Ahmadinejad and ‘Supreme’ Leader Khamenei. 37

There has been no clear evidence of an active Iranian nuclear weapons program. The USA is insisting the documents on the “Laptop of mass destruction” are proof of such a program, but these claims are not taken very seriously by most experts. Foreign analysts and the IAEA seriously question the authenticity of the documents. There are indications that suggest the documents originate from the US supported terrorist organization Mujahideen e-Khalq (MEK) via Israel’s Mossad, so you could understand if they are regarded with suspicion. 38 39

A US-led full-scale war with Iran is problematic on so many levels that it is very unlikely to take place, but there is another possible solution: Let Israel attack Iran’s nuclear installations using tactical nuclear weapons. This has the added benefit that it destroys any proof that Iran’s nuclear ambitions might have been centered on power generation for civilian use, as all IAEA inspections have indicated. Any sane member of the human race would consider this to be completely reprehensible alternative, but we have learned that plans were developed for nuclear attacks on Iran back in 2005 under instructions from Vice-president Dick Cheney’s office. 40

Fast-forward to 2009 and we hear John Bolton argue that this is the time for an Israeli strike 41 42 and Joe Biden gives a green light to an Israeli nuclear attack against Iran in an ABC News interview.

Are there any signs of preparations for an attack? It has been known for years that Israel has been planning and training for a nuclear strike on Iran. 43 More recently, Israeli submarines sailed through the Suez Canal on their way to the Red Sea. 44 The London Times 45 report that Israel has received approval from Saudi Arabia to use its airspace for attacks against Iran. Recently, Israely Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said there was no guarantee Israel would not launch a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. 46

A recent poll showed that 66 percent of Israelis would back a pre-emptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. This is interesting. It is not likely that Iran would dare launch any direct nuclear attacks on Israel, since they would get a prompt and strong nuclear response from Israel and suffer serious consequences even if they manage to damage Israel’s capabilities to strike back. The Israelis know a preemptive nuclear attack on Iran inevitably would lead to increased terrorism, and ramped up Hezbollah attacks on Israel but they still consider it a good alternative. Why? Israel is a tiny country. It would not be difficult to eradicate it from the map using a few nuclear blasts. Nuclear suicide bombers is the stuff of nightmares for Israel.

In Israel, Iranian nuclear weapons is portrayed as a much more imminent threat than in the US and the reason for that is not that the Israelis have more information about the Iranian nuclear program than US intelligence agencies have. No, US and Israeli intelligence agencies work together in a covert war against Iran’s nuclear program; a campaign that even involves assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. 47 48

The reason for the Israeli saber rattling it is more pragmatic. This is a good time for Israel to launch a strike, and it does not matter if Iran’s nuclear program currently is 100% civilian, which it currently appears to be, according to US intelligence reports. 49 50

Previous US intelligence assessments concluded Iran had a nuclear weapons programme in operation until 2003, when it was halted. If Iran restarts the nuclear weapons program, it is likely to do so at well protected, secret locations, since they are well aware of the threat of Israeli or US preemptive strikes.

But if Israel do not attack now, they might miss the window of opportunity that currently exists. Iran will have time to install new Russian S-300 surface-to-air missiles on nuclear sites. The US and Iran might establish friendlier relations — a prospect that Israel have nothing to gain from in the long run. In a twisted way, it makes sense for Israel to attack now; it will strengthen their position and in the end, from this position of strength, they might be more likely to make concessions towards the Palestinians, so incredibly, an attack against Iran could possibly lead to an earlier establishment of the inevitable: a Palestinian state. 51

What do we have? Israel acquires nuclear weapons secretly, refuses all inspections, supplies the world with fabricated evidence of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program on a “Laptop of mass destruction”. Then, quite possibly, Israel attacks Iran, using their own nuclear weapons, even though they know Iran most likely has no ongoing nuclear weapon program, content in knowing this cannot be proved after the attacks.

The future of the Middle-East is balancing on a knive’s edge. It is a focal point of a multitude of interests and Iran has been caught up in a tangled web, weaved by many actors in the region, including themselves, and as the tensions mount to a breaking point, it is impossible to judge who will be left entangled, freed or flung away in a random direction. If it is Iran, Israel or the USA that is left battered and bruised with a lot of revealing cobwebs in their face remains to be seen, but the stakes are high for all involved. A cautious approach would be to slow things down, start to unravel the webs and reduce tension, but the hawks in Israel and the USA have trouble sleeping at night. They claim they hear a high-pitched whine which they believe come from subterranean Iranian centrifuges. They desperately want to silence that annoying abstract tinnitus, even if it is replaced by a terrifyingly real choir of death and destruction.

To insulate the United States from some of the consequences of an attack, it likely that the USA will engineer a scenario in concert with the Israelis that gives the impression that the US forces wanted to stop the attack but that they were unable to do so. It will also help to hide the existence of a long running US plan to attack and control a number of Russian “client regimes” in the Middle-East:

MEDIA

Will the war mongering succeed? If we buy the prewar propaganda, it will. We know that lies and disinformation are very important tools in wars and intelligence operations. The Iraq war is a good example. Now, the lie comes in the form of a laptop of mass destruction, but the difference this time around is that the devastation from the nuclear attacks will ensure that the attackers will not suffer the embarrassment of being exposed as liars.

Will we allow it to happen again? The problem is that most forms of mass media do not dig deep enough to uncover any of these machinations until it is too late. You can speculate if this is because they are incompetent, manipulated or part of a disinformation apparatus. We know media manipulation is a top budget item for the CIA. 52 The “National Endowment for Democracy”, NED, has been caught red-handed editing the Wikipedia article about the organization and its role in sponsoring coups all over the world. 53

The answer might be that news organizations usually are not directly complicit — they are in the infotainment business. Short and simple lies always beats complicated truths. If the message is too long, few will bother with it and there is little incentive for investigative journalism under those circumstances.

TALL TALES AND DISINFORMATION IS EASIER TO SPREAD

Our conversations in real life or on-line are normally also very short. Most people are not interested in changing their views on a subject; they want to confirm the views they already have and they want to subscribe to the most commonly held beliefs. As a result, hard-nosed interests are having a field day and far away in a foreign country — children get blown to pieces in front of their parents.

Is it too much to ask that we sit down and try to objectively check the facts and make a conscious decision to try to find the truth? Next time we dismiss an idea, maybe we need to think hard about what the consequences are if we are wrong. Perhaps we need to clench our teeth and endure a little painful cognitive dissonance in order to keep in touch with the real world, even if this means reevaluating ourselves, as well as certain news networks and the power-structures behind the current US administration. If we did, it would be much more difficult for certain interests to gain support for various wars and destabilization programs all over the world.

We know Barack Obama has betrayed almost every promise he made before the election. We know he has cozy relations with members of Neoconservative think tanks like the PNAC 54 and organizations like the CFR 55 56

Blood is accumulating on his hands. It started with innocent civilians in Afghanistan. Now, a trace of blood from Neda Agha Soltan and other protesters may also be found on his hands. A war against Iran would add an unknown number of victims, possibly numbering in the millions. Barack Obama’s charisma and eloquent rhetoric could be the lubrication that is going to help the world slip into an even uglier future if certain interests gain the upper hand.

Who would have something to gain from a war against Iran?

There are two historically important factors in US policies of war:

These two powerful special interests are (a) the highly influential beneficiaries of military spending and war dividends or, as the late President Eisenhower put it, the military-industrial complex; and (b) the equally powerful proponents of Greater Israel (from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean coasts), known as the Israel lobby. Evidence shows that both of these groups view their interests better served by war and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.— New Rhetoric, Same Translation, Obama’s Doublespeak on Iran, Ismael Hossein-Zadeh, Counterpunch.

The recipe for war is complete after adding a certain third ingredient to the mix:

PETRODOLLAR WARFARE

It has been suggested that the driving force of United States foreign policy for many years has been the status of the US dollar.

Wars supposedly have been motivated by the urgent need to maintain the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency and oil transaction currency.

What bearing has this on the threat of war against Iran?

The status of the US-dollar is threatened by Iran’s new oil bourse 57 using only non-dollar oil transaction currencies. Iran is also actively cooperating with US arch enemy Chavez in Venezuela, as well as Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Cuba, Paraguay and Brazil.

In 2000, Iraq converted all its oil transactions under the Oil for Food program to euros. This has been claimed to be one of the main reasons for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. After the invasion, the administration reversed the decision and again used US dollars as an oil transaction currency. 58 59

The US dollar is under severe threat. There are signs that an increasing number of countries want to abandon it as a reserve currency. Following the Iranian election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled to Yekaterinberg, in Russia to attend the ninth meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The member states of the SCO share a common agenda against the United States: They want to dismantle the US dollar hegemony by ending the status of the US dollar as a reserve currency and oil transaction currency. 60 61

The importance of the SCO meeting is illustrated by the fact that Ahmadinejad prioritized it over the situation at home with violent riots and efforts to overthrow the current regime. If Iran joins the SCO as a full member, the SCO then controls two thirds of the world’s oil and gas resources and will have the necessary clout to diminish US influence in the region. In his speech before an audience that included the top leaders of the SCO countries, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said:

The international capitalist order is retreating. It is absolutely obvious that the age of empires has ended and its revival will not take place.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wearing funny hats at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conference in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on June 16, 2009. (Image courtesy of www.kremlin.ru)

US actions against Iran is driving Iran straight into Russian and Chinese arms. If Iran is going to become a full member of the SCO, the United States will seriously have to consider the consequences of any military actions against Iran. The failure in toppling the regime in Iran leaves the US with very few options and very little time.

Will the United States silently sit and watch as its power in the region is eroded 62, or will they desperately play one of the few remaining cards: Allowing Israel to launch a nuclear attack on Iran, hoping this might further undermine the current regime?

President Barack Obama and his message to the Iranian people help us understand the emerging US policy under Obama, and it is not a pretty picture. Talks about a new era of dialog and negotiations are either heavily burdened by his neo-conservative allies and only marginally serious, or simply window dressing for western consumption. The most positive spin on Barack Obamas dishonest new years message is that he agreed doing it as a last straw attempt at averting an attack on Iran by helping the efforts to achieve regime change through a coup. Obama must have known that his message eventually would appear shamelessly dishonest to a large part of the world after the US-led attempt to oust the Iranian regime. The failed attempt and the US duplicity leave the US remarkably powerless. The President has lost all credibility. When he extended his hand in an offer of negotiations, this was mostly a show for western consumption. He must have known that the blood on his hand would be visible to the Iranians, but he also knew it looks better to have made the offer — before attacking Iran.

US ECONOMY

The events in Iran can be explained by Iran’s central role in a power struggle that not only threatens the United States influence in the region and its strategic interests against Russia and China; it also threatens the core of the US economy at a time when it is the most vulnerable.

If the dollar lose its status as a reserve currency, the economic and military might of the US will dwindle. The USA will lose the economic construction which helps finance its wars and which gives the USA a license to print money.

The leaders of the United States will have to go back to their Texas farms, shooting tin cans, or frogs to stimulate their cowboy mentality or their need for torture and evil deeds, whichever applies. Well, that was the previous president. The new president may have other hobbies…

On the surface there are few similarities between George W. Bush and Barack Obama, but in many cases, Obama is continuing the policies of the Bush, Cheney and Rumsfelt era, an era which has hurt the USA on many levels — not only because the USA has been painted into a corner economically and strategically — the reckless policies under George W. Bush have made it clear to a number of countries that their best interests are served by attacking the USA economically, going for the jugular while the beast is faltering. 63

Ironically, dollar superiority depends on our strong military, and our strong military depends on the dollar. As long as foreign recipients take our dollars for real goods and are willing to finance our extravagant consumption and militarism, the status quo will continue regardless of how huge our foreign debt and current account deficit become.

But real threats come from our political adversaries who are incapable of confronting us militarily, yet are not bashful about confronting us economically. That’s why we see the new challenge from Iran being taken so seriously. The urgent arguments about Iran posing a military threat to the security of the United States are no more plausible than the false charges levied against Iraq. Yet there is no effort to resist this march to confrontation by those who grandstand for political reasons against the Iraq war. — Ron Paul in a speech before the U.S. House of Representatives, February 15, 2006

A TUG OF WAR

There are very strong strings running between Barack Obama and the financial elite, the neo-conservatives and the military-industrial complex. They will not allow him to back down, instead they are pulling hard on the strings that attach to his trigger finger.

The United States has a long history of using coups and interference as tools to further its strategic and economic goals, but all across the globe, its support for dictators and human rights abuses have backfired. When we now look at the situations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran — we know it all started with US interference in various forms: The United States support of Saddam Hussein. The US coup against democratically elected Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953. The Taliban, created by US training and arming of Mujahideen forces.

With the back against the wall and few friends in the world, the US is now facing a team of emerging Asian super powers. They are staring the US down, and they are not blinking. They are fully aware of the US role in sponsoring conflict, war, torture, repressive regimes, Islamic fundamentalism, and terrorism.

Perhaps it is long overdue for the United States to do something about its standing in the world and its status as one of the most hated nations on Earth. Attacking Iran, either directly or through Israel, will certainly not help. Maybe Obama’s only really good option is to fight harder against the strings that control him, but the force of the pull suggests that the devil himself is at the other end.

Maybe Barack Obama knows that he risks meeting the same fate as another president who fought the same battle and dared form his own policies, John F. Kennedy, by some considered to be the last real president of the United States.

But wouldn’t it be a great defining moment in history, if president Barack Obama were to announce to the world that he has decided to cut the cords that are pulling for war, and that he knows this might lead to his assassination, but that he is willing to take that risk?

We know this would be a great speech. A speech that doesn’t ring hollow, a speech that reverberates with true passion and conviction. If he would dare confront the corporate interests that have taken control of federal agencies and institutions, if he dared question the right of lobbyists and industry to run a country, if he transformed the CIA into an agency that respected human rights, an agency that protected rather than perverted the principles that guided the creation of the United States, then there might be a small glimmer of hope.

But it will never happen.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. — Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968)

That was in 1963.

This is the nightmare today: The forces behind the assassinations of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy appear to be in control of the president. They are feeding disinformation to major news organizations in preparation for another war. The architects behind US wars declare that the number of civilian casualties are secondary. A ratio of about 300 Iraqi civilian deaths (mostly women and children) to one US soldier is the current standard. We see torture of Iraqis, including abuse of children in front of their parents. The torture program was mandated by the US government and supported by a frighteningly large percentage of its people.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.— United States Declaration of Independence.

How could it go so wrong?

Do we need to ask how the USA ended up being hated by a large percentage of the world population? A war on terror fought by sponsoring terrorism? A lunatic president going to war partly because he wants to jump-start the end of the world as prophesied in the Bible? 64 Torture, drugs, lies and interference? Destroying the world climate? Disregarding civilian casualties? Dragging the world economy down and asking others to pay the bill?

Is there a special hell reserved for the souls of nations? If so, both the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States are prime candidates for permanent residency.

Torture, nuclear power, oil, dictatorship, intolerance, media manipulation — all are problematic concepts, polluting our minds, and our environment, but they are part of the old world and they are failing. We have a chance to build a new future based on less polluting activities.

Let’s take that chance.

While we’re at it, maybe we also should take a hard look at why monotheism frequently leads to intolerance and wars. And why conservatism leads to indifference to human rights. I’ll bet the explanation is similar in both cases.

Just my two eurocents…

1. 1 The Iranian People Speak, Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty, Washington Post ¶
2. 2 Ahmadinejad won. Get over it, Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett, POLITICO ¶
3. 3 Is Twitter a Tool for US Covert “Black” Operations to Achieve Regime Change in Iran?, Newswyrdy. ¶
4. 4 Mir-Hossein_Mousavi, Wikipedia. ¶
5. 5 Mir-Hossein_Mousavi article discussion, Wikipedia. ¶
6. 6 1988 Executions Of Iranian Political Prisoners, Wikipedia ¶
7. 7 Robert Baer: Don’t Forget Mousavi’s Bloody Past, TIME, Thursday, Jun. 18, 2009. ¶
8. 8 Iran Busts Another CIA Network, Payvand’s Iran News. ¶
9. 9 The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran. by Seymour M. Hersh, ANNALS OF NATIONAL SECURITY, PREPARING THE BATTLEFIELD. ¶
10. 10 Halt Cheney’s And Now Obama’s Covert Iran Operations, Allen L Roland, The People’s Voice, June 20th, 2009 ¶
11. 11 Lessons Learned: Iran-Contra, the CIA, the CRS, and Cheney’s Assassination Squads, AlterNet. ¶
12. 12 The Mousavi campaign in Iran and the lessons of past “color revolutions”, Niall Green. ¶
13. 13 Iran finds US-backed MKO/MEK fingermarks in riots, PressTV. ¶
14. 14 Michael Ledeen, Sourcewatch. ¶
15. 15 Who is Michael Ledeen?, William O. Beeman, Pacific News Service. ¶
16. 16 Michael Ledeen, Wikipedia. ¶
17. 17 Coalition for Democracy in Iran, Profile, Political Research Associates. ¶
18. 18 WASHINGTON MIGHT HAVE PICKED IRAN’S FUTURE KING AND PREMIER, William O. Beeman, Director of Middle East Studies at Brown University. ¶
19. 19 Ghorbanifar, Mousavi, and the CIA, Jeremy R. Hammond, Foreign policy Journal. ¶
20. 20 Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s Iran/Contra Connection?, Revolutionary Flowerpot Society. ¶
21. 21 “THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED”, An award-winning documentary, Google Video, Wikipedia description. ¶
22. 22 Neda Soltani’s death as reported by CNN, (Video, graphic content). ¶
23. 23 Neda before she is shot. (Video). ¶
24. 24 Iran attacks Obama interference, (Video). ¶
25. 25 Meeting the Challenge: U.S. Policy Toward Iranian Nuclear Development, Bipartisan Policy Center. ¶
26. 26 Dennis Ross’s Iran Plan, ROBERT DREYFUSS, The Nation, April 27, 2009. ¶
27. 27 Ross Is Clearly a Major Player, Jim Lobe, March 3rd, 2009, LobeLog.com ¶
28. 28 Obama Implements Neocon Strategy Against Iran, March 03, 2009. ¶
29. 29 NEOCONS FORM NEW ANTI-IRAN GROUP WITH SUSPECT BI-PARTISAN, CLAIM., Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make The World A Better Place. ¶
30. 30 Bush Lies about Iran on Now-Ruz ¶
31. 31 Who’s Telling the Truth About Iran’s Nuclear Program?, Muhammad Sahimi. ¶
32. 32 Nuclear program of Iran, Wikipedia. ¶
33. 33 IRAQ: The elusive Iranian weapons, Los Angeles Times. ¶
34. 34 The Bush Administration’s Bogus Claims About Iran’s Weapons Smuggling, Gareth Porter. ¶
35. 35 Iran War Lies, Democrats.com. ¶
36. 36 U.S. military chief says clock ticking on Iran nuke, Reuters 7th of July, 2009. ¶
37. 37 Regime Change Iran: Movement Seeks to Eliminate ‘Supreme Leader’ Position, Threats Watch. ¶
38. 38 The ‘laptop of mass destruction’, Gareth Porter, Asia Times. ¶
39. 39 IAEA Conceals Evidence Iran Documents Were Forged, Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service. ¶
40. 40 Nuking Iran Without the Dachshund, The meaning of the Philip Giraldi story, Antiwar.com ¶
41. 41 Time for an Israeli Strike?, The Washington Post, July 2, 2009. ¶
42. 42 JOHN BOLTON: A TRUE REPUBLICAN WAR MONGER, Gary Ater, Uncommon Common Sense. ¶
43. 43 Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran, Times Online, January 7, 2007. ¶
44. 44 Israeli sub sails Suez, signaling reach to Iran, Reuters. ¶
45. 45 Saudis give nod to Israeli raid on Iran, Times Online. ¶
46. 46 Israel’s ‘options open’ on Iran, BBC NEWS, 21 September 2009. ¶
47. 47 Israel launches covert war against Iran, The Telegraph, UK, 16 Feb 2009. ¶
48. 48 Report: Iran accuses U.S. in researcher’s disappearance, CNN, October 8, 2009. ¶
49. 49 National Intelligence Estimate – Iran: Nuclear Intentions and
    Capabilities, 2 Dec 2007. ¶
50. 50 Intelligence Agencies Say No New Nukes in Iran – Secret updates to White House challenge European and Israeli assessments, Newsweek, Sep 16, 2009. ¶
51. 51 Why Israel Will Bomb Iran — The rational argument for an attack, David Samuels, Slate, April 9, 2009. ¶
52. 52 “It may surprise some to discover that the largest single category of covert activity concerned tampering with free elections around the world. [...] The second largest covert action category is ‘media and propaganda.’ [...] The third largest category is ‘Paramilitary/Arms Transfers.’ “, See The Pike Papers. ¶
53. 53 There is an interesting discussion at the Wikipedia talk page for NED. ¶
54. 54 Project for the New American Century, Wikipedia, ¶
55. 55 Obama’s Council on Foreign Relations Crew, Steve Watson, Global Research. ¶
56. 56 Council on Foreign Relations, Wikipedia. ¶
57. 57 Iranian Oil Bourse, Wikipedia. ¶
58. 58 Petrodollar Warfare, Wikipedia. ¶
59. 59 The World’s Foremost Terrorist — The US Government. ¶
60. 60 De-Dollarization: Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire The Yekaterinburg Turning Point, Dr. Michael Hudson, Op-Ed News. ¶
61. 61 The American Empire Is Bankrupt, Chris Hedges. ¶
62. 62 ANDREI ARESHEV: THE SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION AND NEW ‘GREAT GAME’[ ¶
63. 63 The End of Dollar Hegemony, Ron Paul ¶
64. 64 Confirmed by president Chirac in a new book. “Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush’s invocation of Biblical prophecy to justify the war in Iraq and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs”: Bush, God, Iraq and Gog – was religion motivation for war?, Clive Hamilton. ¶

Do we really know this to be true? Aren’t they even better tools for the spreading of rumors and disinformation?

If you look closer you will find no real proof of a large-scale election fraud. Instead, there is hard proof in the form of polls conducted just prior to the election, showing Ahmadinejad had a very substantial lead over his main opponent Mousavi. 1

Ahmadinejad has been portrayed as a vicious enemy of the United States for a long time. The opponent, Mousavi, is favored by the United States. In a country like Iran, where the United States appears to be deeply hated, you would expect it to be very difficult for a candidate favored by the US to win an election.

There is a multitude of reasons for why the US is not very popular in Iran.

In 1953, the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran’s popular prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. The Eisenhower administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons, but the coup was clearly a setback for Iran’s political development and it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs.— Madeline Albright, 2000

The democratically elected US-critical Mohammed Mossadegh was overthrown and put in jail for three years, and later died during his house arrest. Instead of the popular Mossadegh, the Iranian people had to suffer under a torturing US puppet for years. Instead of democracy — dictatorship. 2

This rings a bell. It rings several bells actually. We know that President George W Bush recently gave the approval to launch covert “black” operations to achieve regime change in Iran. There are very few reasons for the current administration to scrap those plans, so you would expect them be in place. 3 The recent events in Iran reek of foreign intelligence agency involvement. It as if they are taken directly from CIA instruction manual for when and how to orchestrate a coup.

A CIA RECIPY FOR A COUP

What is the CIA master blueprint for these kinds of operations? There are a number of CIA led coups since 1952 that give us an idea. A good example of how the CIA go about these things is the recent failed coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 2002: 4

You form alliances with the right interests, bribe media, use established propaganda radio stations to organize and incite protests. You organize demonstrations that you portray as peaceful, even if they are not. If the police do not fire upon your demonstrators, you place a few snipers on the rooftops and shoot a number of your own demonstrators through the head and then you blame the government. Not a nice thing to do, but effective.

Back to Iran and recent events:

• There have been reports of plain-clothes snipers firing on protesters in Iran.
• Voice of America and the BBC appears to be guiding protests in Iran. 5
• There are signs that indicate that the demonstrations are orchestrated by western interests. Demonstrators even carry signs written in English: “Where is My Vote?”
• Mousavi, in a strange move, announced himself the winner already on the night of the election.
• Already a few weeks before the vote, the Mousavi camp started to say that the election is going to be rigged.
• Before the election, Rafsanjani threatened to start a social volcano if Moussavi wasn’t declared a winner.
• Rafsanjani’s wife said people should pour into the streets if Moussavi didn’t win.
• Moussavi’s wife publicly talked about fraud directly after casting her vote.
• Color-coded revolts and the use of modern forms of communications are a sign of involvement of the National Endowment for Democracy, known for interference in foreign regimes that threaten the interests of the United States or certain commercial interests. NED was set up to continue the CIA’s legacy of interference and coups. 6
• If NED is using Twitter as a tool for destabilizing Iran, this would explain why the US State Department recently asked Twitter not to shut down services for a scheduled update. 7

OIL AGAIN

Oil was one of the reasons for the last US-lead coup in Iran, in 1953. Now it looks like Ahmadinejad made the same mistake as Hugo Chavez, suggesting less dependence on foreign investments in the oil industry, instead promising to put the income of this industry at the peoples disposal.

There are all kinds of other reasons for the US/NED/CIA to destabilize Iran or to promote another war in a the region, and they have been running a media campaign for a long time to prepare for this, portraying Iran as very active sponsor of terrorism. The US have also claimed that Iran is supporting the Iraqi insurgency and that they are responsible for a large number of deaths of American soldiers in Iraq. It is very hard to judge the truthfulness of these claims, but Iran does put out a lot of rhetoric that on the surface seem to substantiate them. We know they applauded the murder of Anwar Sadat and supported the Fatwah against Salman Rusdie until 1998, but there is no real reliable evidence of the training of terrorists in Iranian camps or that they have aided the Iraqi insurgency. The US claims that Iraqi officials have evidence of Iranian weapons used in Iraq but this evidence seems to have evaporated. Iraqi officials say they have no such evidence. 8 Iran and Iraq have lately established closer connections, and Iran has cooperated in efforts to block any influx of weapons over the border.

A picture circulating on Twitter, supposedly showing a huge protest rally. In reality this is from a pre-election rally in Naghshe Jahan Square, Ishafan. Compare this with the second picture here. BBC published another fraudulent image.

This is a war of information. It would be foolish to trust anything that is not 100% verifiable. Speculations in the media and State Department statements mean nothing. Twitter and Facebook are perfect channels for disinformation. Twitter is a rumor-mill. This post cannot be trusted. What is verifiable is the history of US involvement in the middle east, and it is not a pretty picture.

I don’t think the election was stolen, Ahmadinejad probably won it. With the high voter turnout, it could even be called a more fair election than what has been experienced in most western democracies in later years. If an oppressive regime is taking baby steps towards democracy and freedom of speech, perhaps it would be better to accept the results and wait for the democratic process to work – real lasting change might come in the next election. Channeling the disappointment of the losing side into riots and bloodshed, hiring thugs to stir up violence in an intelligence operation run by USA and Britain, if that is what is happening, is such a badly timed irresponsible strategy that words cannot begin to describe it.

BARACK OBAMA

If the unrest in Iran in part is organized by the CIA, NED, and MI5, this would transform the perception of President Obamas Nowruz message to Iran from a promising step forward towards reconciliation and real dialog into a deceitful effort to manipulate the election in favor of Mousavi and a tremendous insult to the Iranian people and their leaders.

If the right-wing hawks and commercial interests again manage to turn an opportunity for democracy and dialog into oppression and polarization, this time under an US administration that has raised hopes for a change in the foreign policies of old, there is little hope for anything but a continuation of conflict and terrorism for a number of decades.

Why the enormous discrepancy between words and action? Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing? Barack Obama’s connections with right-wing hawks imply that he knows this perfectly well.

Rarely have such high hopes for change been so thoroughly shredded.

Related readings

• Are you ready for war with demonized Iran?, Paul Craig Roberts, OpEdNews
• Iran Faces Greater Risks Than It Knows, Paul Craig Roberts, VDARE.com
• Transcript of Scott Pelley’s Interview with Ahmadinejad, Part 1, Part 2 – A great read.
• Obama, Michael Medved and the CIA overthrow of democracy in Iran, Eric Black, MinnPost.com
• Mohammad of Vancouver: Tehran is burning, and who is fueling the fires?, Mondoweiss
• The green inferno: debunking Iranian election fraud skeptics:
  Ali Gharib responds to Mohammed of Vancouver’s post Tehran is burning, and who is fueling the fires?, Mondoweiss
• Transcript: Ayatollah Khamanei’s Speech at Prayers 19 June 2009
• Robert Fisk’s World: In Tehran, fantasy and reality make uneasy bedfellows, The Independent
• Twitter Is a Player In Iran’s Drama, State Dept. Asked Site to Keep Running, The Washington Post
• State Terrorism By Iran, Wikipedia
• Iran’s Suicide Brigades, Ali Alfoneh, Middle East Quarterly
• Ahmadinejad – “The man of one thousand shots.” - Torturer, executioner, commander of assassination squads:
  “I knew Dr. Mirzai was not his real name”, National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs Committee
• Iran’s New Terrorist President, Iran Terror Database, 2005
• Bio of Iranian Terrorist-in-Chief, NORTHEAST INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
• Ahmadinejad Willing to Act on Threats, Nooredin Abedian, Jewish Journal
• President Ahmadinejad’s speech at the Durban Review Conference on racism, PressTV
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad NBC Interview, YouTube
• Dashing Fabricated Hopes: The Meaning of Ahmadinejad’s Victory, Pierre Tristam, CommonDreams.org

And a video:

1. 1 The Iranian People Speak, Washington Post. ¶
2. 2 Operation Ajax. ¶
3. 3 HALT CHENEY’S AND NOW OBAMA’S COVERT IRAN OPERATIONS, Allen L Roland. ¶
4. 4 THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED (Video) ¶
5. 5 Qashqavi: VOA, BBC guiding unrest in Iran, Neo-cons Spinning Hearts and Minds, Bush Plans Huge Propaganda Campaign in Iran. ¶
6. 6 National Endowment for Democracy, Wikipedia ¶
7. 7 Twitter Is a Player In Iran’s Drama, State Dept. Asked Site to Keep Running ¶
8. 8 Where Are Those Iranian Weapons in Iraq? ¶

To a big pot of gold.

Apple introduced the mouse to the computing world in 1983, and now it is time to introduce a new kind of mouse. With a magnetometer compass built in, the iPhone will become a pointing device for the real world.

Knowing the orientation and position of an iPhone is the secret sauce for augmented reality, geobrowsing and location-based ads. The latter has the potential for generating huge revenues if it is implemented the right way.

What is the right way? Unobtrusive delivery of well targeted ads.

WORLD DOMINATION

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone back in 2007, he called it a “magical” device that will “Change the world.” Behind him you could see a huge image of the Apple Logo floating in space, the sun about to go up behind it.

Steve Jobs knew exactly what he was saying when he said that the iPhone will change the world. There was a good reason for the image of the Apple Logo floating in space like the Earth.

The inclusion of a digital compass in the new iPhone is the last important step in a long running plan to snatch the world away from the competition. Their goal is to get a get a good head start on the competition in the field of location-based services and location-based ads, and they want you to help them along.

How?

By developing iPhone apps that serve up location-based ads and by annotating the earth.

GEOBROWSING

With automatic geotagging of images and video in the iPhone, it makes perfect sense for Apple to collaborate with Google in a framework for large-scale information sharing on geographic places — information that is floating in the air on a specific spot, waiting to be geobrowsed by an iPhone. If anyone easily can associate text, images, audio and video with a location, and all this information is shared, the earth will be covered with information that can be browsed by anyone passing by. “The ground will speak,” 1 and if the browsing device happens to know your interests — it will even say relevant things. And serve up well-targeted and relevant ads.

All this already exists in different forms, but the landscape is too fragmented with a plethora of different services. What is needed is a big player establishing a standard and supplying an easy-to-use global platform for the whole concept. The big player is going to be Apple and/or Google.

A lot has been said about the iPhone not being disruptive product and that it is not revolutionary. I think this is wrong on many levels.

DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY

At the surface, it may seem like a small and evolutionary change, putting an electronic compass into a location-aware device like the iPhone, but the combination of all the technologies in the iPhone has the potential to change the world — at least how we look at the world, and how we interact with it.

Remember the story about how you are going to be able to order coffee at Starbucks through the iPhone and then pay at the counter? 2 Think bigger. The new iPhone 3.0 operating system and its push notifications and the in-app commerce features and abilities to pay through your account at the iTunes store, could completely change the way you shop. As you walk into any store, you could browse information about their products, order and pay and maybe have the goods delivered to your home, without having to stand in line and all the usual hassle associated with shopping. It is like on-line ordering with the added benefit of being able to squeeze, smell, and try out the products. The rumored improved camera with autofocus enables bar-code scanning. Sit in a comfy sofa at IKEA, order it, and that’s it. You just walk out. Or you could pick the goods up as you leave.

The digital compass in the new iPhone together with accelerometers, GPS, Wi-Fi, camera and various apps synergistically conspires to turn the iPhone into a device that can make a real and lasting connection to the real world.

It has all the necessary technology, ease-of-use, and momentum to make location-based services a lucrative business. I think Apple wants a piece of that pie.

BROWSE THE EARTH, AUGMENT REALITY

The world already is an interesting place, but any given location is usually much more interesting than we are aware of when we actually are standing there.

When we travel or move around in a region, there is a wealth of information related to the area that sits unused in libraries or on obscure web-pages.

The digital compass enables the location-aware phone to know the orientation in 3D-space so that it can deliver informational overlays on top of the scene in front of you. Soon, you may not only see grass, rocks and a few cow droppings when you look out across a field; you will see scenes from history, the natural forces that created the scene you are watching, and you may hear stories from people that passed by or the collected remembrances from the people that used to live there. You could subscribe to popular guided tours or make your own geo-podcasts. The possibilities are endless.

AN APPLE LEAK

What do I base all this on? A leak, and some interesting connections between people working for Apple and Google. 3

The leak is supposed to be an anonymous leak from inside Apple, according to Apple iPhone Apps:

-Revolutionary combination of the camera, GPS, compass, orientation sensor, and Google maps

The camera will work with the GPS, compass, orientation sensor and Google maps to identify what building or location you have taken a picture of. We at first had difficulties believing this ability. However, such a “feature” is technically possible. If the next generation iPhone was to contain a compass then all of the components necessary to determine the actually plane in space for an image taken. The GPS would be used to determine the physical location of the device. The compass would be used to determine the direction the camera was facing. [...] According to our source, Apple will use this information to introduce several groundbreaking features. For example, if you were to take a picture of the Staples Center in Los Angeles, you will be provided with a prompt directing you to information about the building, address, and/or area. This information will include sources such as wikipedia. This seems like quite an amazing service; and a little hard to believe, however while the complexity of such a service may be unrealistic, such is actually feasible with the sensors onboard the next generation iPhone.

Other possibilities include automatic high-resolution building details in Google Earth, historical overlays over the real world and iPhone Lightsaber fighting over Wi-Fi. 4

Location-aware advertising is going to be a revolution. The next big advertising trend. Are Apple really interested in this?

Apple are already exploring and patenting the use of location-based iPhone ads, 5 and the iPhone is already ahead in many ways compared to most other smartphones.

THE POT OF GOLD

How can Apple make money from this?

Why not an Ad-Store? It could provide tools for designing iPhone-specific ads such as arrows pointing the way or augmented reality overlay graphics like virtual neon signs. Apple gets to review and approve your ad, and Apple also provides an API to let applications display these ads.

Maybe you have noticed that the 3.0 iPhone’s Safari Browser includes Geolocation capabilities. Many of the new location-based services for the iPhone may be web-services in Safari, but you would expect the Maps application to be the master application for geobrowsing points of interests, photos, audio, video and articles. This gives Apple a good way of selling ad-space for relatively unobtrusive ads.

A small art gallery in the middle of nowhere could automatically attract art buffs passing by. Local restaurants could offer your favorite meal, just as your stomach is starting to rumble.

If you want to serve ads to people in the vicinity of your current position as you are moving around, you could associate the ads position with your iPhone’s position.

CONVERGENCE - CONTINUITY - MOBILE ME

Image courtesy of Apple

Always with you, always on. Devices like the iPhone provide continuity in your digital life. They will carry all important information and most forms of entertainment, but they could also automatically learn about your interests and preferences, building a rich profile from your activities and your position. If this profile is combined with preferences and techniques such as collaborative filtering 6, we can transform these mobile devices into tools for intelligent exploration, intelligently prioritizing high quality information that you are likely to be interested in — and they of course will be very good at serving targeted ads.

PANTS-BASED COMPUTING

Mobile computing as exemplified by the iPhone platform has been described as pants-based computing 7, and this is a very different beast compared to ordinary computing. It demands simplicity, quick access, and instant communication. The mobile computing industry is evolving into a vibrant and competitive ecosystem that continues to yield innovations that will fertilize the more stagnant PC-market, and the demands of mobile computing for quick and easy access will lead to solutions that transform the how we access and publish information on the Internet.

The term pants-based computing might eventually have to be renamed into shirt-based or hat-based computing when battery technology improve sufficiently, and you want to display your iPhone more prominently because of the benefits of always having the videocamera on, recording your day-to-day life.

Which leads us into the next disruptive phenomenon:

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

If you enable a large group of people to post information, articles, photos, and video on geographic locations and provide means for rating, categorization and various forms of social collaboration, you will also have created an alternative form of news distribution. If you have a team of writers that number in the millions that generate geolocated high quality content for free, what local newspaper will be able to compete with that?

It is already happening, and devices like the iPhone will accelerate the process since they provide users with all the necessary tools for generating and publishing geolocated content in the form of text, photo, and video on the go, without having to jump through various hoops in order to do so.

If you marry this with an automatic delivery system using classification, rating, collaborative filtering, and geographic location data to boost relevance for the end user, it is going to be an unstoppable revolution. Information will flow freely. Corporate and government entities will not be able to maintain control of the main flow of information, much to their dismay.

The internet is abuzz with disjointed units of information, dead irrelevant information, blogs no-one reads. The trend now seems to go from in-depth articles that tries to nail down the truth to brief twitterings about everyday activities, as if we have given up on real information. Superficiality rules the day. That is all we are supposed to have time for.

But is that really true? The right way forward must be to increase the signal to noise ratio. We want to lay our hands on good quality information that interests us. Regardless if it is long, complicated, and in-depth. Regardless of the number of incoming links, Google rank or number of diggs. Location is an important factor in finding relevant content, but why stop there?

PROFILES

Geobrowsing a system for geolocated information automatically reduces the amount of irrelevant information. You will only get data relevant to your position — but that is not enough. If you are on the go, you don’t want to start typing keywords and browse X number of items before you hit pay dirt. The system should be so well tuned that you can rely on it to serve up information automatically.

Central to the usability of any unmoderated system for user contributed information is rating, classification and user ratings that describe a users level of correct classification, correct rating and general trustworthiness. There is a need for a rich user profile which will evolve over time, containing semantic representations of your interests, ratings, etc.

You should treat your evolving user profile as something very valuable because it will decide if anyone ever reads your posts. This means you are going to make an effort to correctly rate and classify content, because you are reaping very important benefits.

If you create a rich user profile, why not use this profile actively to classify any piece of information or a web page? When you publish something, your anonymous but detailed profile could enable like-minded others to find your post immediately. No need to spend hours and hours promoting content. No need for SEO. No need for expensive ads. Google rank becomes irrelevant. Content that interests you will automatically gravitate towards you.

In order to make geobrowsing really usable on mobile devices, we must improve or invent new methods for distributing and accessing good quality information and this could impact the Internet as a whole, disrupt the power of corporately controlled media networks, and help make citizen journalism an unstoppable force.

REAL WORLD CONSEQUENCES

News has to a large degree been turned into a form of entertainment and when it does contain a message, it is made up of distortions of the truth that serve someone’s agenda. Most communication of ideas on television is done through the use of short sound bites that are so far removed from the complexities of real life that they are mostly meaningless.— About Newswyrdy

We need to rebuild the news delivery mechanisms from the ground up in order to protect us from being manipulated. Then, a small furry endangered animal called Truth, might stick its nose out, take a few whiffs of fresh air and carefully venture out in the open.

And we might get out of the comfy TV-chair and enter the real world. 8

Maybe we are willing to replace the rainforests of the world with palm oil plantations in order get palm oil for our potato chips, but we should at least be aware of that this is what is happening. How are we going to find out that indigenous people, like the Penans on Borneo, are being squeezed out of existence by the commercial interests we are generating ourselves by sitting in front of the TV, munching away at a bag of potato chips?

Perhaps it is time to rediscover the world we share. Time to bring the social networking sites out from the Internet and into the real world. Time to put some tools for learning and discovery into the hands of our children?

What if the Penans had the very same tools? The next time your child fires up Google Earth, a connection between two very different worlds may be made, and the words of the Penan Chief Along Sega…


“But we are dying…. Of this we can be sure.”

…would reach someone who cares.
– Pulling Answers from Thin Air, Yours Truly, Blog The Globe, 2007

So, where is the compass in the iPhone pointing? Maybe not only to a big pot of gold.

It could make cyberspace more relevant to the real world and the real world more relevant to a generation of computer nerds, gamers, and entertainment junkies. Pale, covered with dust, and cobwebs, they will venture out into the sunlight, wielding a new kind of disruptive tool for exploration, entertainment, information sharing and social interaction that have the capability to transform themselves and the world at the same time.

– Say — what is that twitter I hear?

– Birds, my friend, the feathered kind, perched up yonder in that tree.

– The green thing of high dimensional complexity?

– You speak the truth.

1. 1 Geocorder, Halfbakery. ¶
2. 2 Order coffee directly from your iPhone, DVICE. ¶
3. 3 I wrote about these connections back in January 2007: “The Location Aware iPhone”, Blog The Globe, January 11, 2007:

   If you look for connections between some of the people working for Apple and Google, you will find Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger) at Google, hard at work, you might assume, implementing Googles mobile strategy after selling his company Android to Google.

   What Android is working on has been a well guarded secret, but Rubin shares his interest in location based applications of technology with Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak, who was on the Board of Directors at Danger.

   In a 2003 interview with BusinessWeek, Rubin said there was tremendous potential in developing smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner’s location and preferences. “If people are smart, that information starts getting aggregated into consumer products,” said Rubin.

   Travis Geiselbrecht, working together with Rubin at Danger, can now be found working for Apple.— The Location Aware iPhone, Blog The Globe, January 11 2007

   ¶

4. 4 Where Is The iPhone Compass Pointing?, Newswyrdy. ¶
5. 5 Apple ogles location-based iPhone ads, The Register. ¶
6. 6 Collaborative filtering is the use of an algorithm for matching people with similar interests for the purpose of making recommendations or for helping people find relevant content. It is based on the assumption that if users A and B rate a number of items similarly, they are considered to share similar tastes and should rate other items similarly. It is powerful and simple algorithm in the sense that it works without any direct knowledge about the items it is recommending, but it also have a number of weaknesses. These weaknesses can be avoided if you combine collaborative filtering with rich user profiles, semantic representation and classification of both data and users fields of interest. ¶
7. 7 Location-Aware Computing with iPhone, Tuaw. ¶
8. 8 Global Voices Online, Malaysia: The Plight of Penan. ¶

Ah, but that’s exactly what it can do!

- What?

Change the world.

- How?

Through information overlays on top of the real world. You can turn the iPhone into a looking glass, revealing information associated with places, buildings and objects. Some of this has already been done in limited research projects 1, but it starts getting really interesting when there is a large user base browsing and submitting information.

THE ELECTRONIC COMPASS

Reportedly, the new iPhone will use the Asahi Kasei’s azimuth sensor No. AK8973 2, a magnetometer providing magnetic direction in three planes with an accuracy of 1.4 degree in each plane. With the magnetometer, you will be able to tell the orientation of the phone in three dimensions, and this, coupled with its location, provide a number of interesting possibilities:

• Accessing mobile services and data by using the phone as a pointing device for the real world. Gestures directed at an object/building/area could access services and information. Easier than navigating menus.
• Extreme resolution enhancement for Google Earth - Use the images snapped by iPhone users all over the world to automatically get high resolution up-to-date map images and extremely good 3D building detail.
• Orientation tagged images and movies. Why is this important? Orientation is the difference between seeing the Eiffel Tower or a fat french guy playing boule.
• Historical overlays. A window to the past. Scrub a slider on the iPhone screen to change the point in time and see the scene in front of you change accordingly.
• Scrub a time slider and look at a scene from the accumulated digital images that are mapping an area and you have instant animated history.
• iPhone Lightsaber fighting over Wi-Fi.

The last one might not be world-changing, but try to do that with your normal compass!

WHERE IS APPLE HEADING?

Apples inclusion of a compass is not only about making the iPhone a little more feature-rich, and it is not simply about catching up with the T-Mobile G1 powered by Google Android, which already use a magnetometer compass. It is of course useful to know what direction you are facing for navigation purposes and it will help with navigation at slow speeds, but these benefits pales in comparison with the emerging new possibilities created through the combination of all technologies in the new iPhone.

Image courtesy of Apple

Why is Apple so interested in cramming all kinds of positioning technologies into the iPhone: GPS, WIFI-positioning, accelerometers and whatnot? Why is it important to have several sources of positioning data via the Mac OS CoreLocation framework and a compass for orientation?

Because looking for information in the context of your location is often very useful, and if you add the possibility to reveal all sorts of information simply by pointing a device like a magic wand, or walking around in an area, you will have an ease-of-use that beats anything else — but only if it works all the time, wherever you are. Having several different positioning technologies ensures it will work both indoors and outdoors.

A POINTING DEVICE FOR THE REAL WORLD

With a magnetometer compass built in, the iPhone will become a pointing device for the real world. Apple introduced the mouse to the computing world in 1983, and now it is time to introduce a new kind of mouse for the real world.

The difference this time is that it is also a computing device for the real world as well as a communication and entertainment device. It will have the ability to add text, images, audio and video and associate all this with a location. If we all share this information, the earth will be covered with rich strata of information. The ground will speak. 3

This is why Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone as a “magical” device that will “Change the world” back in 2007.

GEOBROWSING

It is all about storing location-based information in midair, on the spot, ready to be browsed by anyone passing by, and a new, largely untapped, field in advertising that has the potential to provide a huge revenue stream for Apple: Location-based advertising.

Is Apple going into the advertising business? Yes, it appears that they are already exploring and patenting the use of location-based iPhone ads. 4

This is the big thing that both Apple and Google are after.

Why is this going to be big?

What is the most efficient way for a restaurant to get new customers, besides word of mouth? Internet ads? Newspaper ads? TV ads? No, well targeted reasonably priced ads, served unobtrusively according to the interests and eating habits of possible customers that happen to be in the vicinity of the restaurant.

There are an enormous number of businesses all around the world looking for better ways to attract customers. Apple and Google will help rope them in, and they are going to make a lot of money in the process.

This is where the iPhone compass is pointing.

1. 1 Towards Orientation-Aware Location Based Mobile Services, Rainer Simon, Harald Kunczier, Hermann Anegg, Telecommunications Research Center Vienna. (pdf) ¶
2. 2 Japan’s Asahi Kasei to supply magnetometer for next-gen iPhone, AppleInsider. ¶
3. 3 Geocorder, Halfbakery. ¶
4. 4 Apple ogles location-based iPhone ads, The Register. ¶

It also gives an interesting perspective on the efforts of the Obama administration to deal with the crisis and on how media report on it.

I have to admit I was shocked by the implications.

In one respect, we are more fortunate than you in the west. We believe nothing of what we read in the newspapers and watch on television, nothing of the official truth. Unlike you, we have learned to read between the lines, because real truth is always subversive. — Dissident novelist Zdenek Urbánek 1

Scandalous! And why are there so few relevant and hard-hitting questions at President Obamas press conferences? Damage control? Wide spread corruption? A conspiracy? Is it an indication of to what degree Obama is a puppet? Why protect criminals? It seems to be a running theme with the Obama administration.

Bankers create personal wealth through fraud, and then they are saved and protected by the government. Torturers of high rank or station also receive protection. Members of Congress was briefed about the torture, so now they will not want to investigate.

What signal does this send? What future will it create? What kind of world view lies behind these developments?

SORRY HONEY, I BROKE SOMETHING FUNDAMENTAL

Something is broken, and I am afraid it is a fundamental feature of what used to define humanity. It used to be that true ideals and ideologies could inspire the forming of religions, and the creation of nations where equal worth was a central theme. Now, the concept “human nature” is increasingly associated with the seedier side of our souls.

It is the breakdown of integrity – integrity of thought as in having a sense of honesty and truthfulness governing the motivations for one’s actions. This breakdown appears to occur in both humanistic and religious outlooks on life. If you are Christian, you would have to bend your principles into very contorted shapes to justify air strikes on civilians. If you are a Muslim, you have to fundamentally corrupt the central ideas in Islam to advocate terror attacks.

THE FIRST CASUALTY OF WAR IS…

American military deaths in Iraq are completely dwarfed by Iraqi deaths. The majority of the victims are civilians, including women and children.

Analysis carried out for the research group Iraq Body Count (IBC) found that 39 per cent of those killed in air raids by the US-led coalition were children and 46 per cent were women. Fatalities caused by mortars, used by American and Iraqi government forces as well as insurgents, were 42 per cent children and 44 per cent women.— The Independent, Thursday, 16 April 2009 2

It seems that progress lately has halted in areas of human rights and democratic ideals, at least when it comes to the actual implementation of strategies to promote them. Integrity, rationality, and the notion of equal worth for all people seem to be left out of the process. In military operations in Iraq, about 300 Iraqi civilian deaths per US fatality appears to have been considered an acceptable ratio.

This is supposed to be a modern war, with technology that assures remarkable precision, and still large numbers of civilians are killed. Why then the high number of civilian deaths?

…INTEGRITY

It is a numbers game for politicians; their approval rating decrease in relation to the number of killed soldiers. I am sure most soldiers would volunteer their life in protection of the innocent. If posed the question: What do you choose…

1. That we gruesomely kill 300 innocent women and children so that you can live.
2. That we kill you.

… then I suspect most would courageously offer their own life.

IT IS CHRISTIAN TO TORTURE

It seems perfectly OK to bend the most fundamental religious ideas completely out of shape. According to a recent survey, the more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists,

Isn’t there a little thing called the golden rule? “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” So, if you are Christian and say torture is OK, wouldn’t that mean that you also give the OK to torture directed at you?

If you condone torture in military and intelligence operations, you also automatically support torture of innocent people, the same way that proponents of the death penalty also automatically approve of the killing of the innocent, since there will always wrongful convictions.

How the Christian right can say they are pro-life when they are for the Iraq war, capital punishment, and when they support torture is beyond my comprehension. Maybe they have chosen to interpret the scriptures in ways that confirm already firmly rooted beliefs, a common practice among conservatives. They might conveniently be ignoring The Golden Rule and putting more weight on passages about the second coming of Christ, making conflict in the middle-east a vehicle for the establishment of the Kingdom of God, even though any strict interpretation of the relevant passages would suggest that the second coming is supposed to have already happened.

CHANGE

The change that was promised by Obama has materialized. It seems not to be so much a change in ideology. The focus has shifted to another war and other civilians that will be dismembered or killed.

“Civilian deaths and arbitrary decisions to search people’s houses have reached an unacceptable level and Afghans cannot put up with it any longer.”

“Five years on, it is very difficult for us to continue accepting civilian casualties. It is becoming heavy for us; it is not understandable anymore.”

“We are very sorry when the international coalition force and NATO soldiers lose their lives or are injured. It pains us. But, Afghans are human beings, too.”

“Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such.”

“Several times in the last year, the Afghan government tried to prevent civilian casualties, but our innocent people are becoming victims of careless operations of NATO and international forces.”

“The Afghan people understand that mistakes are made. But five years on, six years on, definitely, very clearly, they cannot comprehend as to why there is still a need for air power.”

“Our demand is that there will be no civilian casualties in Afghanistan. We cannot win the fight against terrorism with air strikes.”— Afghan President Hamid Karzai, A series of quotes from 2007 and 2008

Is President Obama paying attention? No, apparently not. In 2009, there have again been heavy civilian casualties. 3.

You would be forgiven if you were to ask whether there were two republican candidates, only one flying his true colors.

Why do the right thing? Why even reason about what is the right thing to do? And what is the right thing? Embark on a war that cannot be won?

Or maybe it can be won, if the road is paved with the bones of soldiers, rather than civilians — if the Taliban are the only ones killing innocent women and children.

If you are looking for freedom, if you are looking for truth, if you are on a quest for a world with a little less suffering, you may have to pay dearly to get there, but the only way forward might be the one where you preserve your integrity and stand tall, proud of the fact that the blood on your boots is your own rather than the blood of innocent women and children.

1. 1 The Real First Casualty of War, John Pilger. ¶
2. 2 Iraq air raids hit mostly women and children, The Independent. ¶
3. 3 Civilian deaths in US airstrike overshadow Obama’s Afghan summit, Times Online, May 7, 2009. ¶

t is a strange world we live in. Did you know that there is a theory for the cause of heart disease that explains many of the things the traditional cholesterol theory of heart disease fails to explain. This theory proposes a treatment that involves completely safe nutrients that reliably reverses atherosclerosis in animals and humans. There are a lot of studies that support the theory, it makes more sense on many levels, but there have been no serious attempts by mainstream medicine to evaluate if the treatment works or not.

It has in fact been completely ignored.

Linus Pauling Ph.D, two-time winner of the Nobel Prize and Matthias Rath M.D. published “A Unified Theory of Human Cardiovascular Disease Leading the Way to the Abolition of This Disease as a Cause for Human Mortality” that gives an explanation for the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and provides a safe and reliable way to control it, supposedly more effective than any treatment discovered to this date. Although the science is impeccable and solidly supported by animal data, it has been completely ignored. No studies have been published. No efforts have been made to evaluate if this can control cardiovascular disease.

You may say that it takes time to design and execute studies, but that is not the problem here. The theory was first published in 1991. Since then, nothing has happened, even though it could potentially save half a million lives every year in the US alone.

Why would a potential cure for heart disease be ignored? Could it be because it threatens a $600 billion industry? A formidable broadside of news stories, ridicule, and fake studies has managed to divert Linus Pauling’s theory to the scientific junkyard. Without it ever being investigated!

THE THEORY

This is what Linus Pauling and Matthias Rath claimed: It is well known that most animals are able to internally manufacture the vitamin C they need. Humans and other primates have lost that capability at some time during evolution, but the loss didn’t present any problems at that time since the diet contained large quantities of Vitamin C. This situation then was radically changed because of human migration, and the climate changes leading to the ice ages.

As food sources rich in vitamin C to a large degree disappeared during the ice age, scurvy must have been a serious threat to survival. Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C and always leads to death if not treated. Vitamin C is needed for the formation of collagen which provides structural integrity for blood vessels. Without this structural integrity, you bleed to death internally.

So, this period in human history presented a very strong evolutionary pressure – we had to adapt or die. We survived this difficult time, but the adaptations that were needed for survival are still with us. One such adaptation is the ability to plaster damages to the blood vessel walls with a sticky substance. Does that ring a bell?

This saved us from extinction back then, but today it will cut our life short because of our current low intake of vitamin C.

- So what you are saying is that atherosclerosis is a repair process?

Yes, this is not disputed; this discovery led to the 1985 Brown-Goldstein Nobel prize in medicine.

Matthias Rath and Linus Pauling claimed the reason our blood vessels needs repair is mainly due to the fact we still eat a diet low in vitamin C. We suffer from sub-clinical chronic scurvy leading to weakened blood vessels. A blood lipid: lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a) for short binds to form plaque deposits. This explains many characteristics of heart disease that mainstream medicine still has not been able to explain.

For example, plaque buildup mostly happens where the arteries are subject to high pressure and mechanical stress, closer to the heart. Other parts of the vascular system are spared. The cholesterol theory of heart disease claims that it is high levels of oxidized cholesterol that causes lesions in the blood vessel walls, but if this was true, you would expect plaque buildup to be more evenly distributed, which it is not.

Linus Pauling’s theory makes more sense. The Lp(a) binds only to the walls of blood vessels if the lysine and proline binding sites for Lp(a) has been exposed through damages caused by mechanical stress to the weakened vessel walls. Damage by oxidized cholesterol or homocysteine or infection can of course be a factor, but not alone. You have to account for the localization of the damages first.

Careful studies with guinea pigs which also do not make their own endogenous vitamin C, prove that when the dietary intake of the vitamin is low, collagen production is limited, and blood vessels tend to become thinner and weaker from wear and tear. Lp(a) then form plaque deposits to compensate for this weakness. Feeding them vitamin C and lysine clear the plaque and reverses the process.

HOW MUCH VITAMIN C

- OK, so humans cannot manufacture vitamin C internally, but have to get it from the diet. But doesn’t most of us already get enough? How much do we get and how much do we need?

It is difficult to get any reliable data on the exact amounts of vitamin C consumed by our ancestors, but if you look at our closest relatives in the animal world, the higher primates1, you will see that they consume 10 to 20 times more vitamin C than the human recommended daily allowance (RDA) of 90 milligrams per day. That amounts to 900 - 1800 milligrams. Linus Pauling often recommended 3000 mg. His personal use varied between 6,000–18,000 milligrams per day. Most animals make vitamin C in their livers or kidneys in large amounts (9,000 mg to 12,000 mg adjusted for body weight), do not have Lp(a) in their blood, and rarely suffer cardiovascular disease.

It is starting to become very clear that the current low RDA for vitamin C has more to do with politics and prejudice than science. The research behind the RDA values for vitamin C is biased, out-of-date and insubstantial.

Current medical textbooks used in education contain very little mention of vitamin C and its importance for collagen formation. Most doctors arrive in the real world, woefully undereducated in disease prevention. They regard Vitamin C as mostly useless. Why?

Most studies cited by industry and mainstream medicine use very low amounts and you don’t see that many beneficial effects at those low levels. If you compare dosage in relation to effect on cardiovascular disease risk for a number of studies, you see the following:

• 1 study showed favorable response when under 500 mg was administered 2
• 30 studies showed favorable response when over 500 mg was administered 3
• 3 studies showed no response when under 500 mg was administered 4
• 4 studies showed no response when over 500 mg was administered 5

In Germany and Norway, where the Codex Alimentarius proposals are already enshrined in law, it is illegal to sell Vitamin C in strengths above 200 mg. This low level ensures that there will be no benefit at all on cardiovascular disease risk.

In France, a woman was arrested for selling 500 mg vitamin C tablets.

You can feed people truckloads of trans fats and sell as much tobacco and alcohol as you like. Causing disease is perfectly legal, but if you try to prevent disease, you are thrown into jail.

- So, you are saying that the Pharmaceutical industry wants to restrict our abilities to prevent disease and that explains why there has been no efforts to evaluate Linus Pauling’s work on vitamin C?

There are several factors at work here. If you make extraordinary claims that you are able to cure major diseases using very simple nutrients, in this case vitamin C and lysine, and you are not a member of the medical profession yourself, you have to be very careful about how you present it, especially if you are going to butt heads with the pharmaceutical industry.

Linus Pauling is a very well respected scientist. He was included in a list of the 20 greatest scientists of all time by the British magazine New Scientist, with Albert Einstein being the only other scientist from the twentieth century on the list. Some have claimed that Pauling was one of the greatest thinkers and visionaries of the millennium, along with Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. Linus Pauling was way ahead of his time in many of the diverse areas he worked in during his lifetime.

Unfortunately, this time he was threatening a multi-billion dollar industry.

His credibility was attacked, he was called a quack, and his work on vitamin C and cancer together with the British cancer surgeon, Ewan Cameron 6 on the use of intravenous and oral vitamin C as cancer therapy was questioned after trials conducted by Moertel et al. at the Mayo Clinic failed to prove a benefit for megadoses of vitamin C in cancer patients. 7

Pauling called Charles Moertel’s conclusions and the handling of the final study as “fraud and deliberate misrepresentation.” Pauling criticized the flaws of Moertel cancer trial’s over several years. But the adverse publicity generated by Moertel and the media damaged Pauling’s credibility and his vitamin C work for a very long time.

VINDICATION

Now, 35 years later, he is vindicated. With a growing body of evidence mounting, National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers finally conceded that intravenous vitamin C may be an effective treatment for cancer. One study 8 in 2005 clearly confirmed Dr. Linus Pauling’s research. It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and showed that intravenous vitamin C killed cancer cells selectively, sparing healthy cells. The treatment showed no toxicity. The ability to kill lymphoma cells was remarkable – almost 100% at easily achievable blood serum concentrations.

In 2006 the Canadian Medical Association Journal published in vivo research that demonstrated that intravenous vitamin C can subdue advanced-stage cancer. 9

In January 2007 the US Food and Drug Administration approved a new trial of intravenous vitamin C as a cancer treatment. 10

Now we can see that the delay caused by Moertel’s flawed studies robbed a very large number of cancer patients of an effective treatment. Only Moertel himself knows if the flaws in the study design were the results of honest mistakes, incompetence or it all was a deliberate attempt to bury a promising therapy. Moertel’s had been responsible for the debunking of another alternative cancer treatment, laetrile, which continues to be controversial.

At any rate, much of Linus Paulings credibility was destroyed, causing the “Unified Theory of Human Cardiovascular Disease” to be completely ignored by the scientific community for decades.

Now, when the scientific community finally is starting to re-evaluate his research on cancer, maybe the “Unified Theory of Human Cardiovascular Disease” will be investigated properly. If it turns out that Linus Pauling was right about this as well, the medical community will have to dress in sack cloth and cover themselves in ashes.

Mainstream medicine has been wrong about the Atkins diet, vitamin C and cancer, the cholesterol connection to heart disease, the control of Chrohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis through diet, Helicobacer pylori and stomach ulcers – the list goes on and on, so we shouldn’t be so surprised if it turns out that they also are wrong about the connection between vitamin C and heart disease.

Maybe this is a good time to sell your stocks in the pharma business?

Whatever the context and whatever the audience, he was clear, he was committed, he was compassionate, and, far more often than most, he was right — or if not, at least on the side of the angels.

– Derek A. Davenport (about Linus Pauling)

The Pharmaceutical companies cannot be said to be on the side of the angels. If they succeed in their efforts to restrict access to vitamins, making it impossible to buy vitamin C supplements in higher potencies than the laughable RDA, you will not be able to enjoy many of the powerful disease preventing qualities of Vitamin C.

It is a strange world we live in.

Why not join us? Become a writer for Newswyrdy. You can make a difference!

[References]

1. 1 Milton, K. (1999) “Nutritional characteristics of wild primate foods: do the diets of our closest living relatives have lessons for us?” Nutrition. 1999 Jun;15(6):488-98. [back]
2. 2 Favorable response when under 500 mg was administered:
   • Khaw KT, et al. Interrelation of VITAMIN C, infection, haemostatic factors, and cardiovascular disease. BMJ 1995 Jun 17;310(6994):1559-63.

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3. 3 Favorable response when over 500 mg was administered:
   • Gokce N, et al. Long-term ascorbic acid administration reverses endothelial vasomotor dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease. Circulation 1999 Jun 29;99(25):3234-40.
   • Chambers JC, et al. Demonstration of rapid onset vascular endothelial dysfunction after hyperhomocysteinemia: an effect reversible with vitamin c therapy. Circulation 1999 Mar 9;99(9):1156-60.
   • Wilkinson IB, et al. Oral vitamin C reduces arterial stiffness and platelet aggregation in humans. J Cardiovasc Pharmacol 1999 Nov;34(5):690-3.
   • Jeserich M, et al. Vitamin C improves endothelial function of epicardial coronary arteries in patients with hypercholesterolaemia or essential hypertensionŒassessed by cold pressor testing. Eur Heart J 1999 Nov;20(22):1676-80.
   • Frei B. On the role of vitamin C and other antioxidants in atherogenesis and vascular dysfunction. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 1999 Dec;222(3):196-204.
   • Nappo F, et al. Impairment of endothelial functions by acute hyperhomocysteinemia and reversal by antioxidant vitamins. JAMA 1999 Jun 9;281 (22):2113-8
   • McAuliffe AV, et al. Administration of ascorbic acid and an aldose reductase inhibitor (tolrestat) in diabetes: effect on urinary albumin excretion. Nephron 1998 Nov;80(3):277-84.
   • Solzbach U, et al. Circulation 1997 Sep 2;96(5):1513-9. Vitamin c improves endothelial dysfunction of epicardial coronary arteries in hypertensive patients.
   • Ting HH, et al. VITAMIN C improves endotheliumdependent vasodilation in forearm resistance vessels of humans with hypercholesterolemia. Circulation 1997 Jun 17;95(12):2617-22.
   • Mosca L, et al. Antioxidant nutrient supplementation reduces the susceptibility of low density lipoprotein to oxidation in patients with coronary artery disease. J Am Coll Cardiol 1997 Aug;30 (2):392-9.
   • Levine GN, et al. Ascorbic acid reverses endothelial vasomotor dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease. Circulation 1996 Mar 15;93(6):1107-13
   • Fuller CJ, et al. Effect of ascorbate supplementation on low density lipoprotein oxidation in smokers. Atherosclerosis 1996 Jan 26;119(2):139-50.
   • Valkonen MM, et al. Vitamin C prevents the acute atherogenic effects of passive smoking. Free Radic Biol Med 2000 Feb 1;28(3):428-36.
   • Schwille PO, et al. Postprandial hyperinsulinaemia, insulin resistance and inappropriately high phosphaturia are features of younger males with idiopathic calcium urolithiasis: attenuation by Ascorbic acid supplementation of a test meal. Urol Res 1997;25(1):49-58.
   • Zhang J, et al. A single high dose of vitamin C counteracts the acute negative effect on microcirculation induced by smoking a cigarette. Microvasc Res 1999 Nov;58(3):305-11.
   • Purkayastha SS, et al. Effect of vitamin C and E in modulating peripheral vascular response to local cold stimulus in man at high altitude. Jpn J Physiol 1999 Apr;49(2):159-67.
   • Chamiec T, et al. Effects of antioxidant vitamins C and E on signal-averaged electrocardiogram in acute myocardial infarction. Am J Cardiol 1996 Feb 1;77(4):237-41.
   • Weber C, et al. Increased adhesiveness of isolated monocytes to endothelium is prevented by VITAMIN C intake in smokers. Circulation 1996 Apr 15;93 (8):1488-92.
   • Gatto LM, et al. Ascorbic acid induces a favorable lipoprotein profile in women. J Am Coll Nutr 1996 Apr;15(2):154-8.
     Singh RB, et al. Usefulness of antioxidant vitamins in suspected acute myocardial infarction (the Indian Experiment of infarct survival-3). Am J Cardiol 1996 Feb 1;77(4):232-6
   • Munoz JA, et al. Effect of VITAMIN C on lipoproteins in healthy adults. Ann Med Interne (Paris) 1994;145(1):13-9.
     Tomoda H, et al. Possible prevention of postangioplasty restenosis by Ascorbic acid. Am J Cardiol 1996 Dec 1;78(11):1284-6.
   • Laskowski H, et al. Mortality and clinical course of patients with acute myocardial infarction treated with streptokinase and antioxidants: mannitol and Ascorbic acid. Int J Cardiol 1995 Mar 3;48(3):235-7.
   • Eriksson J, et al. Magnesium and Ascorbic acid supplementation in diabetes mellitus. Ann Nutr Metab 1995;39(4):217-23.
     Gilligan DM, et al. Effect of antioxidant vitamins on low density lipoprotein oxidation and impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilation in patients with hypercholesterolemia. J Am Coll Cardiol 1994 Dec;24(7):1611-7.
   • Cerna O, et al. Plasma lipids, lipoproteins and atherogenic index in men and women administered vitamin c. Cor Vasa 1992;34(3):246-54.
   • Barta E, et al. Protective effect of alpha-tocopherol and L-ascorbic acid against the ischemic-reperfusion injury in patients during open-heart surgery. Bratisl Lek Listy 1991 Mar-Apr;92(3-4):174-83.
   • Salonen JT, et al. Effects of antioxidant supplementation on platelet function: a randomized pairmatched, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial in men with low antioxidant status. Am J Clin Nutr 1991 May;53(5):1222-9.
     Hornig B, et al. Vitamin c improves endothelial function of conduit arteries in patients with chronic heart failure. Circulation 1998 Feb 3;97(4):363-8.
   • Heitzer T, et al. Antioxidant vitamin C improves endothelial dysfunction in chronic smokers. Circulation 1996 Jul 1;94(1):6-9.

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4. 4 No response when under 500 mg was administered:
   • Azen SP, et al. Effect of supplementary antioxidant vitamin intake on carotid arterial wall intima-media thickness in a controlled clinical trial of cholesterol lowering. Circulation 1996 Nov 15;94(10):2369-72.
     Mayer-Davis EJ, et al. Vitamin c intake and cardiovascular disease risk factors in persons with noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. From the Insulin Resistanc Atherosclerosis Study and the San Luis Valley Diabetes Study. Prev Med 1997 May- Jun;26(3):277-83.
   • Calzada C, et al. The influence of antioxidant nutrients on platelet function in healthy volunteers. Atherosclerosis 1997 Jan 3;128(1):97-105.

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5. 5 No response when over 500 mg was administered:
   • Bostom AG, et al. The effect of high-dose ascorbate supplementation on plasma lipoprotein(a) levels in patients with premature coronary heart Jacques PF, et al. Effect of VITAMIN C supplementation on lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoprotein, and triglyceride concentrations. Ann Epidemiol 1995 Jan;5(1):52-9.
   • Kelly TH, et al. Response patterns and cardiovascular effects during response sequence acquisition by humans. J Exp Anal Behav 1991 Nov;56(3):557-74. 71. Weber C, et al. Increased adhesiveness of isolated monocytes to endothelium is prevented by VITAMIN C intake in smokers. Circulation 1996 Apr 15;93 (8):1488-92.
   • Westhuyzen J, et al. Effect of preoperative supplementation with alpha-tocopherol and ascorbic acid on myocardial injury in patients undergoing cardiac operations. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1997 May;113 (5):942-8.

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6. 6 Linus Pauling’s work on vitamin C and cancer together with the British cancer surgeon, Ewan Cameron:
   • Cameron, E. and Pauling, L. (1976) Supplemental ascorbate in the supportive treatment of cancer: prolongation of survival times in terminal human cancer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 73:3685-3689.
   • Cameron, E. and Pauling, L. (1978) Supplemental ascorbate in the supportive treatment of cancer: Reevaluation of prolongation of survival times in terminal human cancer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 75:4538-4542
   • Cameron E, Pauling L, Leibovitz B. (1979) Ascorbic acid and cancer: a review. Cancer Research 39, 663-681.
   • Cameron E, Pauling L. Cancer and Vitamin C. Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, Menlo Park, Ca. (1979); (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London 1980; Kyoritsu Shuppan KK, Tokyo 1981; Warner Books, New York 1981; Services Complet d’Editions, Quebec and Paris 1982).
   • Cameron, E. and Pauling, L. (1973) Ascorbic acid and the glycosaminoglycans: An orthomolecular approach to cancer and other diseases. Oncology (Basel) 27: 181-192.
   • Cameron E, Pauling L. Experimental studies designed to evaluate the management of patients with incurable cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1978; 75:6252.
   • Cameron E, Pauling L. (1979) Ascorbate and cancer. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 123:117-123.
   • Cameron E, Pauling L (1978) Ascorbic acid as a therapeutic agent in cancer. J. Intern. Acad. Prev. Med. 5 (1), 8-29
   • Cameron F, Pauling L. (1981) Survival times of terminal lung cancer patients treated with ascorbate. J. Intern. Acad. Prev. Med. 6: 21-27.
   • Cameron E and Pauling L (1978) Ascorbic acid as a therapeutic agent in cancer. J. Intern. Acad. Prev. Med. 5 (1), 8-29.
   • Cameron E and Pauling L (1980) On cancer and vitamin C. Executive Health 16 (4), 1-8. Jan.
   • Cameron E and Pauling L (1981) Survival times of terminal lung cancer patients treated with ascorbate. J. Intern. Acad. Prev. Med. 6) 21-27.
   • Cameron E and Pauling L (1982) Megadoses of vitamin C as an adjunct in the treatment of cancer. Your Patient and Cancer 2, 39-46. May.
   • Pauling L and Cameron E (1983) Vitamin C and cancer. Australasian Health & Healing 2 (3), 9-10 (April-June).
   • Cameron, Ewan (Undated, c.1986-88) Protocol for the use of intravenous vitamin C in the treatment of cancer. Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, Palo Alto, California. 8 pp.
   • Cameron E and Pauling L (1987) Vitamin C and AIDS. Washington Post Health, p. 4. Feb. 3.
   • Cameron, E. and Pauling, L. (1993) Cancer and Vitamin C, revised edition. Philadelphia: Camino Books.

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7. 7 Creagan ET, Moertel CG, O’Fallon JR, et al. Failure of high-dose vitamin C therapy to benefit patients with advanced cancer. A controlled trial. N Engl J Med 1979;301:687–90. [back]
8. 8 Chen Q, Espey MG, Krishna MC, Mitchell JB, Corpe CP, Buettner GR, Shacter E, Levine M. Pharmacologic ascorbic acid concentrations selectively kill cancer cells: Action as a pro-drug to deliver hydrogen peroxide to tissues. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2005 Sep 20;102(38):13604-9. Epub 2005 Sep 12. [back]
9. 9 Sebastian J. Padayatty and others. Vitamin C documented to quell advanced-stage cancer in three cases involving bladder, lung, kidney and lymphoma tumors. Canadian Medical Assn Journal 174: 937–42, 2006
   The study underwent rigorous case reporting standards as outlined by the U.S. National Cancer Institute. [back]
10. 10 FDA OK’s vitamin C trial for cancer. Physorg.com (January 12, 2007). “Federal approval of a clinical trial on intravenous vitamin C as a cancer treatment lends credence to alternative cancer care, U.S. researchers said.” [back]