Brigitte Gabriel

You may not have read the book by Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese Christian woman thrown out of her home by Palestinians. It's called: Because They Hate.

Below, Brigitte, who now lives in America, writes to President Obama, bringing her unique perspective to bear.

Brigitte Gabriel - Letter to President Obama.

Dear Mr. President,

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You face difficult challenges in matters such as achieving peace in the Middle East and protecting America from the threat of radical Islam and terrorism.

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These are challenges that have vexed past presidents, going as far back as our second president, John Adams. I have no doubt you appreciate both the gravity of these challenges and the enormous obstacles that exist to solving them.

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I also have no doubt that you and your staff understood that, no matter what you said in your speech recently in Cairo, there would be those who would take issue with you.

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That is always the case when attempting to solve problems that are as deep and emotionally-laden as these challenges are.

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I am assuming it is your sincere hope that the approach you have chosen to take, as evidenced by what I'm sure was a carefully crafted speech, will ultimately prove successful.

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However, it pains me to say this sir, but,while you said in your speech that you are a "student of history," it is abundantly clear that, in these matters, you do not know history and thus,as Santayana noted, you are doomed to repeat it. In doing so your efforts,however well-intentioned they may be, will not produce what you profess to hope they will produce.

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A wise man once said that if you start with the wrong assumptions, no matter how logical your reasoning is, you will end up with the wrong conclusion.

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With all due respect Mr. President, you are starting with certain assumptions that are unsupported by history and an objective study of the ideology of political Islam.

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You began in your speech by asserting that "tensions" exist between the United States and Muslims around the world, which, of course, is correct.

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Unfortunately, you then proceeded, incorrectly, to lay virtually all the blame for these tensions at the feet of Americaand the West.

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You blamed western colonialism, the Cold War, and even modernity and globalism.

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A student of American history, who is not trying to reconstruct it to fit a modern politically correct narrative, would state that tensions between America and Muslims began with the unprovoked, four-decades long assault by the Muslim Barbary pirates against American shipping in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

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I find it telling that you mentioned the Treaty of Tripoli in your speech but ignored the circumstances that led to it.

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That treaty was but one of numerous attempts by the United States to achieve peace with the jihadists of the Barbary Coast who were attacking our shipping and killing and enslaving our citizens and our soldiers and who by their own admission were doing so to fulfill the call to jihad.

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These jihadists were not acting to protest American foreign policy, which was decidedly isolationist, and there was no state of Israel to scapegoat.

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They were doing what countless Islamic jihadists have done throughout history, acting upon the hundreds of passages in the Qur'an and the Hadith that call upon faithful Muslims to kill, conquer or subjugate the infidel.

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A student of world history would know that, for all the acknowledged evils of Western colonialism, these evils pale in comparison to the nearly 14 centuries of Islamic colonialism that began in Arabia under the leadership of Mohammed.

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The student of history would know that Islamic forces eradicated all Jewish and Christian presence from Arabia after Mohammed's death, and then succeeded in conquering all of North Africa, most of the Middle East, much of Asia Minor, and significant portions of Europe and India, eventually creating an empire larger than Rome's was at its peak.

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The number of dead and enslaved during these many centuries of Islamic imperial conquest and colonialism have been estimated to total more than 300 million.

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What's more, the wealth of many of the conquered nations and cultures was plundered by the Islamic conquerors, and millions of non-Muslims who did survive were forced to pay onerous taxes, such as the"jizya," a humiliation tax to the Islamic caliphs.

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Indeed, in some areas Christians and Jews were made to wear a receipt for the jizya around their

neck as a mark of their dishonor.

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These facts have not been invented by Christian or Jewish historical revisionists, but were chronicled by Muslim eyewitnesses throughout the past 14 centuries and are available to be researched by any person seeking an objective understanding of how Islam spread throughout the world.

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You say in your speech that we must squarely face the tensions that exist between America and the Muslim world. That is a laudable notion with which I agree, but by casting Islam as the historical victim and the West (and by implication, America) as the aggressor, you do not face these tensions squarely, but alleviate the

Muslim world from coming to grips with the jihadist ideology embedded in its holy books and acted upon for

1,400 years.

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Even worse, you empower and embolden militant Islamists who regard your gestures as signs of weakness and capitulation.

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The issue is not that all Muslims are terrorists or radicals or extremists.

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We all know that the majority of Muslims are not.

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We also know that many peace-loving Muslims are victims of Islamist violence.

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The issue is this: what drives hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide to call for the death of Jews?

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What drives millions of Muslims to riot, destroy property, and take innocent lives in reaction to the Danish cartoons?

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What drives tens of thousands of Muslims to demand the execution of a British teacher whose only "crime" was allowing her students to name their teddy bears "Mohammed"?

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What drives countless Muslims worldwide to actively participate in, or fund, or provide nurture to terrorist organizations?

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What drives Muslims in mosques in America to proclaim and distribute materials that call for hatred of and the destruction of infidels?

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What drives entire Islamic countries to prohibit the building of a church or synagogue?

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To assume, as you apparently do, that what drives these actions is not an ideology embedded in the holy books of Islam, but rather other "root causes," most of which you lay at the feet of America and the West, is at best naive and at worst - dangerous.

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Lastly, I must address your statement that "Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance."

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Unfortunately, the examples you gave are the exception rather than the rule. Historically speaking,

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I seriously doubt the Egyptian Copts, the Lebanese Maronites, the Christians in Bethlehem, the Assyrians, the Hindus, the Jews, and many others who have been persecuted by Islamic violence and supremacism, would agree with your assertion.

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For instance, Christians and Jews became "Dhimmis," a second class group under Islam. Dhimmis were forced to wear distinctive clothing; it was Baghdad's Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, in the ninth century, who designated a yellow badge for Jews under Islam, which Hitler copied and duplicated in Nazi Germany nearly a thousand years later.

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I witnessed first-hand the "tolerance" of Islam when Islamists ravaged my country of birth, Lebanon, in the 1970's, leaving widespread death and destruction in their wake.

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I saw how they re-paid the tolerance that Lebanese Christians extended toward them.

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My experience is not an isolated one.

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When you make an unfounded assertion about the "proud tradition" of tolerance in Islam, you do a great disservice to the hundreds of millions of non-Muslims who have been killed, maimed, enslaved, conquered, subjugated or displaced in the cause of Islamic jihad.

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Mr. President, those of us like me who are ringing the alarm in America about the threat of radical Islam would like nothing better than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim world.

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Most Americans would like nothing better than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim world.

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The obstacle to achieving this does not lie with us in America and the West.

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It lies with the hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide, including many of their spiritual leaders, who take seriously the repeated calls to jihad in the Qur'an and the Hadith.

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Who regard "infidels" as inferior and worthy of conquering, subjugating and forcibly converting.

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Who support "cultural jihad" as a means to subvert non-Muslim societies from within.

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Who take seriously the admonitions throughout the Qur'an and the Hadith to convert the world to Islam by force if necessary and bring it under the rule of Allah.

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Unless you are willing to courageously and honestly accept this, your aspirations for worldwide comity and peace in the Middle East are doomed.

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Sincerely,

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Brigitte Gabriel

Hiding, falling apart

However we play with the statistics to cover up the converging crises of our time, the crises continue to intensify.

We can euphemize the autism crisis away,

We can do the same with the obesity epidemic,

Or the soil crisis,

And then the water crisis,

Or the so called energy crisis

Then there is the financial crisis

Or the so called war on terror

We can dumb down standardized exams to cover up the accelerating implosion of the educational system.

We can redefine people in and out of poverty and manipulate economic statistics.

We can declare - simply declare - that the forests are not in precipitous decline.

For a while we can hide the gathering collapse of environment and polity, economy and ecology, but eventually reality will break through

How exciting to be living in these times

No fear please just live life to the max

And be clear we all have a role to play

Your thoughts have power, be clear therefore to find and think a better future

And how can you do this when you do not in your soul believe this to be true?

Get real and discover that there is amongst all the garbage a truth

A truth about life

About why we are here

Why you are here life after life

And once you get this then you see how your own unique contribution is important

Make this your journey to understand the why and what of our lives

Find out about the perennial or ageless wisdom

Mothers in law

When two people decide to marry, each makes a pledge that the other will be the most important person in his or her life.

We assume that, when the going gets tough, our partner will be on our side.

The last thing we expect, as we complain about the events of our day, is to have a spouse side with the person we’re complaining about.

If that happened regularly, we’d conclude that there was something rotten in the state of our marriage.

But this is precisely what happens when conflict arises between us and our in-laws

It is surprising how often both men and women will protect their mothers against their partner, seeing the partner as the one who should make allowances.

But when a partner is told: “That’s just the way my mother is; you have to accept that”, for sure they feel betrayed

It starts with love; our first love.

The biochemistry and neural signals that bond infant and parent are the same ones used to bond us to a mate.

A mother and baby lock together in a mutual gaze, each looking back at the other — an activity psychologists call “eye love”, which is also practised by romantic lovers as they gaze at each other in mutual admiration.

However, the absorbing bond with a parent is the infant’s first experience of being one half of a loving pair, and the legacy of this early intimacy has an impact on every subsequent intimate attachment, including marriage.

Though it is often said that the family is in decline, the bond between parent and child remains as strong and enduring as ever.

A parent-in-law may be loving, but this love is rarely unconditional.

A parent’s continual assessment of a son’s or daughter’s spouse, combined with fears about the impact of the marriage on their own special relationship, form the bedrock of the conflict between in-laws

What can a husband do?

Respond to your partner’s anger without endorsing or challenging her criticism of your parent.

Don’t criticise your partner for her feelings about your parent.

Ask your partner to be specific about what she would like to change.

Propose ways to help her negotiate that change.

What can a wife do?

Frame your problem in terms of how you feel, rather than as criticism of your in-law.

Assure your husband that you understand and appreciate how much he loves his parents.
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Explain that setting limits on parents is different from rejecting them.
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Remind him that in supporting you he is not being disloyal to his mother

Times

Really really wire-less

A system that can deliver power to devices without the need for wires has been shown off at a hi-tech conference.

The technique exploits simple physics and can be used to charge a range of electronic devices.

Eric Giler, chief executive of US firm Witricity, showed mobile phones and televisions charging wirelessly at the TED Global conference in Oxford.

He said the system could replace the miles of expensive power cables and billions of disposable batteries.

There is something like 40 billion disposable batteries built every year for power that, generally speaking, is used within a few inches or feet of where there is very inexpensive power
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Trillions of dollars, had also been invested building an infrastructure of wires "to get power from where it is created to where it is used."

Witricity claims to be able to charge gadgets large and small

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Mr Giler showed off a Google G1 phone and an Apple iPhone that could be charged using the system.
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Witricity, had managed to pack all the necessary components into the body of the G1 phone, but Apple had made that process slightly harder.

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They don't make it easy at Apple to get inside their phones so we put a little sleeve on the back," he said.
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He also showed off a commercially available television using the system.

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Imagine you get one of these things and you want to hang it on the wall

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Think about it, you don't want those ugly cords hanging down
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The system is based on work by physicist Marin Soljacic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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It exploits "resonance", whereby energy transfer is markedly more efficient when a certain frequency is applied.

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When two objects have the same resonant frequency, they exchange energy strongly without having an effect on other, surrounding objects.

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For example, it is resonance that can cause a wine glass to explode when a singer hits exactly the right tone.

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But instead of using acoustic resonance, Witricity's approach exploits the resonance of low frequency electromagnetic waves.
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HOW WIRELESS POWER WORKS

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1. First magnetic coil (Antenna A) housed in a box and can be set in wall or ceiling
2. Antenna A, powered by mains, resonates at a specific frequency
3. Electromagnetic waves transmitted through the air
4. Second magnetic coil (Antenna B) fitted in laptop/TV etc resonates at same frequency as first coil and absorbs energy
5. Energy charges the device

Th.e system uses two coils - one plugged into the mains and the other embedded or attached to the gadget.

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Each coil is carefully engineered with the same resonant frequency.

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When the main coil is connected to an electricity supply, the magnetic field it produces is resonant with that of with the second coil, allowing "tails" of energy to flow between them.

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As each "cycle" of energy arrives at the second coil, a voltage begins to build up that can be used to charge the gadget.

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Mr Giler said the main coil could be embedded in the ceiling, in the floor, or underneath your desktop

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Devices using the system would automatically begin to charge as soon as they were within range

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You'd never have to worry about plugging these things in again
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Mr Giler was keen to stress the safety of the equipment during the demonstration.
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There's nothing going on - I'm OK," he said walking around a television running on wireless power.
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The system is able to operate safely because the energy is largely transferred through magnetic fields.
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Magnetic fields interact with everyday objects less than electric fields
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Humans and the vast majority of objects around us are non-magnetic in nature," Professor Soljacic, one of the inventors of the system, told BBC News during a visit to Witricity earlier this year.
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It is able to do this by exploiting an effect that occurs in a region known as the "far field", the region seen at a distance of more than one wavelength from the device.

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In this field, a transmitter would emit mixture of magnetic and potentially dangerous electric fields.
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But, crucially, at a distance of less than one wavelength - the "near field" - it is almost entirely magnetic.

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Hence, Witricity uses low frequency electromagnetic waves, whose waves are about 30m (100ft) long. Shorter wavelengths would not work.

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Witricity is not the first jump on the concept of wireless electricity.
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For example, the nineteenth century American inventor Thomas Edison and physicist and engineer Nikola Tesla explored the concept.

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In the very early days of electricity before the electric grid was deployed [they] were very interested in developing a scheme to transmit electricity wirelessly over long distances, explained Professor Soljacic.
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Intel showed off its wireless power solution in August 2008
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They couldn't imagine dragging this vast infrastructure of metallic wires across every continent
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Tesla even went so far as to build a 29m-high aerial known as Wardenclyffe Tower in New York.

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It ran into some financial troubles and that work was never completed, said Professor Soljacic.
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Today, chip-giant Intel has seized on a similar idea to Witricity's, whilst other companies work on highly directional mechanisms of energy transfer, such as lasers.

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However, unlike Witricity's work, lasers require an uninterrupted line of sight, and are therefore not good for powering objects around the home.

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In contrast, Mr Giler said Witricity's approach could be used for a range of applications from laptops and phones to implanted medical devices and electric cars.

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Imagine driving in the garage and the car charges itself, he said.
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He even said he had had interest from a company who proposed to use the system for an "electrically-heated dog bowl".

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You go from the sublime to the ridiculous, he said
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Ted Global

Remember bananas

Going Bananas! Just in case you forgot.............
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A professor at CCNY for a physiological psych class told his class about bananas.

He said the expression 'going bananas' is from the effects of bananas on the brain.
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Read on:

Never, put your banana in the refrigerator!!!

This is interesting.

After reading this, you'll never look at a banana in the same way again.

Bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fibre.

A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy.

Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout.

No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes.

But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.
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Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana.

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This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.
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PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana.

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The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.
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Anaemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of haemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anaemia.
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Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure.

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So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.
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Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power.

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Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.
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Constipation: High in fibre, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.
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Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey.

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The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system..
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Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.
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Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.
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Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin.

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Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation..
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Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.
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Overweight and at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychologyin Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps.

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Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs.

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The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.
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Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness.

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It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases.

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It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.
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Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a 'cooling' fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers.

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In Thailand , for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.
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Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.
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Smoking &Tobacco Use: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking.

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The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.
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Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance.

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When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels..

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These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.
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Strokes: According to research in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!
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Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!
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So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills.

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When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals.

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It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around

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So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say,

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'A banana a day keeps the doctor away!'
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PS: Bananas must be the reason monkeys are so happy all the time! I will add one here; want a quick shine on our shoes??

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Take the INSIDE of the banana skin, and rub directly on the shoe...polish with dry cloth.

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Amazing fruit!
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Telegraph

Thought provokers - 1

I can't understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I'm frightened of old ones
John Cage

It's an ill plan that cannot be changed.
Latin proverb

Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes Hugh Prather

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it's the only one you've got
Alain (Emile August Chartier)

It's a mighty poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word. Andrew Jackson

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one
Malcolm Forbes

Life is not a static thing. The only people who do not change their minds are incompetents in asylums, and those in cemeteries
Everett McKinley Dirksen

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail
Ralph Waldo Emerson

They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself
Andy Warhol

Only fools and dead men don't change their minds. Fools won't and dead men can't John H. Patterson

Too much consistency is as bad for the mind as for the body
Aldous Huxley

Unless you change how you are, you'll always have what you've got. Jim Rohn, Speaker and Author

Change your thoughts and you change your world. Norman Vincent Peale

Continuing to cling to the patterns you know inhibits your ability to discover what you don't know
Eric Allenbaugh

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought
Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi

Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix
Christina Baldwin

The dust of exploded beliefs may make a fine sunset. Geoffrey Madan

There is nothing so confining as the prisons of our own perceptions. William Shakespeare, King Lear

No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew. Albert Einstein

Team members need to be able to suspend disbelief, think the unthinkable, and let intuition and premonitions flow freely. Therefore, a necessary skill in team members is tolerance for ambiguity
Kees van der Heijden

The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty, not knowing what comes next Ursula K. Leguin

I desire that there be as many different persons in the world as possible; I would have each one be very careful to find out and preserve his own way Henry David Thoreau

Change is fun and exciting and, like a haircut, looks funny at first; but once you get used to it, it's great
Anne Blair

New frameworks are like climbing a mountain—the larger view encompasses rather than rejects the earlier, more restricted view Albert Einstein

Nanobees

US scientists unleashed swarms of the tiny artificial particles "nanobees" on human breast and skin tumours in mice.

Each spherical "nanobee", measuring just three millionths of an inch across, was armed with a cancer-killing toxin found in bee venom.

Targeting cancer but not healthy cells, the nanobees delivered a lethal "sting".

The bee toxin, melittin, destroys cells by drilling holes through them.

After four to five injections of melittin-carrying nanobees over several days, the growth of breast cancer tumours in the mice was slowed by nearly 25 per cent.

Melanoma - or skin cancer - tumours shrank in size by 88 per cent.

Professor Samuel Wickline, from the Siteman Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at Washington University School of Medicine, said:

The nanobees fly in, land on the surface of cells and deposit their cargo of melittin which rapidly merges with the target cells.

We've shown that the bee toxin gets taken into the cells where it pokes holes in their internal structures.

The nanobees are made of perfluorocarbon, an inert material used in artificial blood.

Dr Wickline's team has been investigating their use in various medical applications, including the diagnosis and treatment of narrowed arteries and cancer.

The nanoparticles are large enough to carry thousands of active compounds, yet small enough to pass easily through the bloodstream and attach to cell membranes.

Melittin injected directly into the bloodstream would cause widespread destruction of red blood cells.

But attached to the nanobees, blood cells and other tissues are protected from the toxin's effects.

None of the mice suffered "collateral damage" from the treatment and had normal blood cell counts and no signs of organ damage.

Once injected, the nanobees congregated in the cancers because solid tumours often have leaky blood vessels and tend to retain material.

The same property explains how certain drugs attack cancers much more than normal tissue.

In addition, the scientists loaded the nanobees with special components designed to steer them to the right target.

One targeting agent was attracted to growing blood vessels which proliferate around tumours.

When this was added to the nanobees, they were guided to areas of precancerous skin damage where the blood supply was rapidly increasing.

As a result, the spread of precancerous skin cells was cut by 80 per cent.

Dr Paul Schlesinger, co-author, said: Melittin has been of interest to researchers because in high enough concentration it can destroy any cell it comes into contact with, making it an effective antibacterial and antifungal agent and potentially an anticancer agent.

Cancer cells can adapt and develop resistance to many anticancer agents that alter gene function or target a cell's DNA, but it's hard for cells to find a way around the mechanism that melittin uses to kill.

Nanobees are an effective way to package the useful, but potentially deadly, melittin, sequestering it so that it neither harms normal cells nor gets degraded before it reaches its target

Reporting their results in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the scientists said nanobees had the potential not only of tackling established tumours, but also halting the development of early-stage cancer.

Prof Wickline said melittin was "easily and cheaply produced".

We are now using a non-toxic part of the melittin molecule to hook other drugs, targeting agents or imaging compounds on to nanoparticles, he added.

Attaching imaging agents to the spheres could provide a visual indication of how much medication gets into tumours and what effect it has.

The flexibility of the nanoparticles meant they could readily be adapted to fit medical situations as they arise, said the scientists.

Potentially, these could be formulated for a particular patient, said Dr Schlesinger.

We are learning more and more about tumour biology, and that knowledge could soon allow us to create nanoparticles targeted for specific tumours using the nanobee approach.

Telegraph

More on plastics in the oceans

The scale of plastic pollution in the sea has only been widely recognised in recent years when sailing yachts reported vast areas of ocean, such as an area estimated to be twice the size of Texas in the North Pacific, that seem to be permanently covered in a layer of floating marine litter caught up in swirling ocean currents or gyres.

Some of the items were found to be many decades old, suggesting that the plastic took a long time to degrade. However, a study by Katsuhiko Saido at Nihon University in Chiba, Japan, has found that plastics degrade relatively quickly in the conditions and temperatures that were designed to simulate the environment of the open ocean.

Plastics in daily use are generally assumed to be quite stable.

We found that plastic in the ocean actually decomposes as it is exposed to the rain and sun and other environmental conditions, giving rise to yet another source of global contamination that will continue into the future

To date, no studies have been conducted on plastic decomposition at low temperature in the environment owing to the mistaken conception that plastic does not decompose.

The present study was conducted to clarify that drift plastic does indeed decompose to give rise to hazardous chemicals in the ocean

The scientists found that when plastics decompose in the ocean they release a range of chemicals, such as bisphenol A and substances known as polystyrene-based (PS) oligomers, which are not found naturally.

Bisphenol A has been implicated in disrupting the hormonal system of animals.

A common form of plastic rubbish is styrofoam, which soon gets crushed into small pieces in the sea.

However, it also releases substantial quantities of a toxic substances called styrene monomer, which is known to cause cancer, as well as styrene dimers and trimer, which are suspected of being carcinogenic.

The trimer also breaks down into the toxic monomer form.

Findings from the study were released yesterday at the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington.

Samples of seawater collected from the Pacific Ocean were found to be contaminated with up to 150 parts per million of some of these components of plastic decomposition.

This study clearly shows new micro-pollution by compounds generated by plastic decomposition to be taking place out of sight in the ocean.

Thus, marine debris plastics in the ocean will certainly give rise to new sources of global contamination that will persist long into the future

It is estimated that there could be hundreds of millions of tons of plastic rubbish floating in the world’s oceans.

In Japan alone, it is calculated that 150,000 tons of plastic is washed up on its shores each year.

Independent

Bombing for peace

The danger when we operate wholly in a world of representations and images is that we begin to mistake that world for reality, and to believe that by manipulating symbols we can automatically change the reality they represent.

We lose touch with the reality behind the symbols.

Grisly death becomes collateral damage.

Torture becomes enhanced interrogation.

A bill to gut pollution controls becomes the Clear Skies Act.

Defeat in Iraq becomes victory.

War becomes peace.

Hate becomes love.

Slavery becomes freedom.

The Orwellian ambition to render language incapable of even expressing the concept "freedom" has nearly been fulfilled.

Not by eliminating the word, but by converting it into a mere image, an empty shell, a brand.

How can the voices of protest be effective when everyone discounts all speech as image, spin, and hype?

Whatever you say, it is in the end just words

Take heart: the evisceration of the language that makes our tyranny impregnable also ensures its eventual demise.

The words, numbers, and images over which it exercises complete control are less and less congruent to reality.

Such is the folly of the infamous "Brand America" campaign, designed to burnish America's "image" abroad.

The image has become more important than the reality.

Bombs blow up innocent civilians to send a "message" to the "terrorists."

No matter that this message exists only in the fantasies of our leaders.

They are, like those they rule, immersed in an increasingly impotent world of symbol and cannot understand why the world does not conform to their manipulation of its representation, the pieces on their global chessboard.

C.Eisenstein

More problems for European bees

The bee-eating hornets, instantly recognisable by their yellow feet, are rapidly spreading round France and entomologists fear that they will eventually cross the Channel and arrive in Britain.

Hundreds of the insects attacked a mother on a stroll with her five-month-old baby in the Lot-et-Garonne department, southwestern France, at the weekend before turning on a neighbour who ran over to help. The baby was unharmed.

They then pursued two passers by and two Dutch tourists on bikes. The victims were treated in hospital for multiple stings, which are said to be as painful as a hot nail piercing the skin.

In the same week, a cleaner in local primary school came under attack after disturbing a hornet nest hidden in the ground.

The Vespa velutina, which grow up to an inch in length, is thought to have arrived in France from the Far East in a consignment of Chinese pottery in late 2004.

They first settled in the forests of Aquitaine, but quickly fanned out to surrounding areas, thriving on rising temperatures linked to global warming and the lack of indigenous predators.

Denis Thiery, an Asian hornet specialist at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, said there was nothing to halt their spread.

From one nest discovered in 2004, there were 2,000 in the Bordeaux area in 2007. Today there are probably several thousand in surrounding departments

According to our studies, they are able to settle in 50 per cent of the country. The European hornet is no match for them, with only a few hundred individuals per nest compared to several thousand for the yellow-footed hornets. They do sometimes fight, but it's a losing battle

As a knock-on effect of the invasive species, the European hornet has become more aggressive, due to a lack of food.

The hornets are just as at home in cities, and favour building their football-shaped nests in sewers, where they have easy access to food and water supplies.

Local authorities in the tourist region of Lot-et-Garonne have issued a statement urging people with bee allergies to be "extremely cautious".

Never attempt to destroy an Asian hornet nest yourself but call on specialist organisations, as this species charges in a group as soon as it feels its nest is threatened

Besides the risk to humans, the hornets have decimated France's already dwindling bee population.

Squadrons of the insects hover over hives and pick off hapless honeybees in mid-air. A handful can destroy a nest of 30,000 bees in just a couple of hours.

In Asia, honeybees form a ball of workers around the intruder and kill it by heatstroke. But in France, the technique appears to have no effect.

Beekeepers suspect that the creatures are also massacring other indigenous insect species. Nobody can say what damage the Asian hornet has done outside of our hives. What is certain is that last autumn there were less insects than before, said Richard Legrand, a keeper in Bergerac.

Entomologists in Britain have said that the species could cross the Channel. You would except it to move up France slowly, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t reach the UK, said Stuart Hine, manager of the Insect Information Service at London’s Natural History Museum.

But he added: The Channel is still quite a good barrier.

There is no need to panic

Telegraph