tagged w/ Undiscovered
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By Martin Asser
BBC News, Damascus
Just off the crowded central market in Old Damascus, a sales assistant called Mahmoud is giving me my first introduction into an unusual Syrian speciality - musical knickers.
The garments come in many different shapes and colours, and play little tunes - or other extraneous noises like telephone ringtones - all made by small electronic devices hidden in the lining.
Singing underwear isn't the only item on sale at the "Fatin Shop for Ladies Indoor Clothing", where Mahmoud is proudly showing off his product lines.
They used to tell me at art school: 'Look within your culture'. So I looked and I was in for a big surprise
Rana Salam, author of Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie
He's got knickers with flashing fairy lights, others that glow in the dark, a bra-and-knickers set shaped like manicured women's hands enveloping the wearer's crotch and breasts.
In a slightly higher price range, he's got remote-controlled bras and knickers, designed to spring open and fall to the floor with a clap of the hands or a press of a button.
Welcome to the no-frills world of Syrian lingerie - no frills, but plenty of tassels, and feathers, and zips, and bras which open like curtains, and...
There's a whole street off the historic Hamadiyeh Souk selling this genre of clothing - all outfits manufactured in Syria, some that Madonna herself might blush to wear, all showing bawdy creativity and a wicked sense of humour.
Culture shock
Forthright displays of the some world's kinkiest "leisure wear" have long been a feature of Syrian souks - though many tourists don't notice the crotchless knickers and PVC French maid outfits among the more traditional inlaid backgammon sets and textiles.
Mahmoud demonstrates a remote-controlled knickers (Photo by Martin Asser)
Mahmoud demonstrates various styles, including remote-controlled knickers
It stems from the Syrian tradition for brides-to-be to be given a trousseau of exotic underwear - sometimes dozens of items - usually by girlfriends, aunties and cousins, to add spice to their wedding nights, honeymoons and beyond.
With a glint in his eye, Mahmoud, who's barely out of school himself, says "some ladies keep coming back until their 30s".
Now two London-based Arab women, Rana Salam and Malu Halasa, are shining a spotlight on this little-known local speciality, with a new book called The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie.
"They used to tell me at art school: 'Look within your culture'. So I looked and I was in for a big surprise," graphic designer Ms Salam told me at the launch in London last month.
"The point of the book is to go be.
I always tell myself, "SELF you got to get out more see the world, get off that hippie website and go to Syria" and then my self answers. Nah, you gotta post three more articles before you can even go to bed. Roses on her chest is cool but I would rather have Tulips on my Organ.By Martin Asser
BBC News, Damascus
Just off the crowded central market in Old... more
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ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Investigators said Friday that they think remains found near a home where Caylee Anthony lived with her grandparents are those of the missing toddler.
Caylee Anthony, 3, has been missing since June in a case that has received national attention.
Caylee Anthony, 3, has been missing since June in a case that has received national attention.
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But, they added, police and prosecutors are waiting until DNA and other tests are completed before making a positive identification.
Orange County, Florida, sheriff's spokesman Carlos Padilla gave three reasons for the belief the body is Caylee's:
• No other children have been reported missing in the area.
• The remains are consistent with a child of Caylee's age.
• They were found in close proximity to the home of Caylee's grandparents.
Caylee Anthony was 2 when she disappeared in June. Her mother, Casey Anthony, 22, didn't report her missing for a month and is charged with murder.
The first word that the corpse found Thursday had been tentatively identified as Caylee's came as her mother's attorneys sought a court order allowing them to observe the autopsy and conduct their own forensic tests.
Lawyer Linda Kenney Baden said in court that investigators told the defense team they "were proceeding as if this were little Caylee Anthony."
Strands of hair found with the remains, discovered Thursday a half-mile from the home of Caylee's grandparents, are the same color as the girl's, the lawyer said. The age and measurements also were a match for Caylee, Baden added.
Casey Anthony, 22, was charged in October with killing her daughter, but her lawyers insist that she is innocent.
After watching this mini series unfold the past five months, I have come to some conclusions of my own. They may be wrong, but, I don't think so. One is that the Grandparents have always known Caylee was dead, at least since july 16th. Having known a liar or two in my life, the grand parents stink of guilt. I will continue my assumptions on the posts.ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Investigators said Friday that they think remains found... more
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MIAMI (Reuters) – Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of television crime show host John Walsh, was kidnapped and killed 27 years ago by a drifter who later died in jail, police in Florida said on Tuesday in closing the books on one of America's best-known unsolved crimes.
The gap-toothed boy, famously pictured holding a baseball bat and wearing a red cap, went missing from the toy department of a mall in Hollywood, Florida, in July 1981. His head was found in a canal two weeks later but his body was never found.
Hollywood police announced on Tuesday that Ottis Toole, a longtime suspect in the Walsh killing, was in fact the murderer. Toole died in prison in 1996.
"For 27 years we've been asking, 'Who could take a 6-year-old boy and murder him and decapitate him? Who?'" John Walsh said at a news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know."MIAMI (Reuters) – Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of television crime show host... more
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Jesse Jackson JR. Today announced that he was a Federal Informant. The Feds were quick to say, "Yes, but not on this case" So ....why this sudden confession? Could he be trying to sway public opinion? I am reminded of one of the Micheal Jackson trials, when Jackson was asked if he had ever had a real GIRLFRIEND. He said, "Brooke Shields", Shields later laughed and rebuffed the statement. Saying something to the effect like "we were pretend boy and girlfriend" But we never EVER had sex. Why would Jessi Jackson Jr. say this? Does he really have something to be worried about? HUUUMJesse Jackson JR. Today announced that he was a Federal Informant. The Feds were quick... more
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His transition team's response may have been too cautious and slow.
By Thomas Fitzgerald
Inquirer Staff Writer
President-elect Barack Obama's response to Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich's alleged effort to sell his old Senate seat grew steadily more specific last week, but it might not have been enough to blow away the stink.
The scandal was a major test of the Obama team's ability to manage a media firestorm that threatened to tarnish his political image as a reformer, while continuing to assemble an administration and attempt to shape economic policy.
Obama reacted tentatively at first and then with surer footing over three days, an evolution that mirrored how he handled other controversies during the campaign.
But some, including Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell, say that approach might not work so well on the presidential stage.
At the end of the week there were lingering questions about whether Obama's staff had contact with Blagovjevich, a rare blemish on an transition process that even Republicans have called near-flawless.
"They have never been in an executive position before," Rendell said Friday on MSNBC's Morning Joe program. "The rule of thumb is whatever you did, say it and get it over with and make it a one-day story as opposed to a three-day story. Politicians are always misjudging the intelligence of the American people."
Rendell said that "of course" Obama's people must have talked with Blagojevich, saying one possible point of contact is chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who succeeded the Illinois governor in Congress. Later, Rendell said he did not mean to suggest the president-elect or advisers did anything substantively wrong. He instead said was criticizing how the transition office handled media inquiries on the topic.
At first, Obama was vague, saying Tuesday that he was sobered by Blagojevich's arrest, had not discussed the Senate seat with him and would not comment on an ongoing federal criminal investigation. The next day, he said through a spokesman that Blagojevich should resign, but did not address questions about staff communications with the governor.His transition team's response may have been too cautious and slow.
By Thomas... more
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It should be noted that virtually all of the lurid reports being palmed off on the public as examples of “alien misbehavior” are actually secret psychological warfare operations by human rogue military-intelligence units.
These renegade military-intelligence units kidnap civilians without legal authorization or justification. These units drug those they kidnap, (often experiencers). These renegades deliberately intimidate, interrogate, physically abuse, and even gang-rape the civilians they kidnap. These covert-operations military-intelligence units then use brainwashing techniques to make the civilians they kidnap forget about the military kidnapping, while the renegades hypnotically implant a false memory about the horrific experience as an alien abduction .
The Councilor For the Watchers, (a member of the High Council of the Star Nations), has passed on the information that the Cabal have appropriated advanced false-image technology, and applied it to their vile MILABS (Military Mind Control And Alien Abduction - faked alien abductions) purposes.
Originally, the U.S. military developed advanced holographic image-projection technology which permits them to create three-dimensional life-like images of, for example, rows of soldiers advancing forward for battle. These images are true-to-life, not like those cheesy holographic images in the earlier Star Wars movies, glowing with a bluish-white light. This new advanced technology allows the Army to create fake battalions on the march, for Saddam Hussein or whomever to waste their battalions and tank columns on responding to, while the real U.S. military are actually conducting battle somewhere else.
True to their duplicitous style, the Cabal let the U.S. taxpayer foot the enormous bill for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the Department of Defense to develop this exotic, classified war technology. Then the Cabal stole this technology.
The Cabal have applied this technology to several dark purposes.
For one, the Cabal conduct psychological warfare operations on innocent civilians by projecting and having a realistic-looking 3-D fake extraterrestrial visit a human person. This image can be blended with psychotronic thought-projections into the head of the civilian victim, so she thinks the extraterrestrial is communicating with her. This visit is misused to give the victim menacing messages. And the Cabal can even beam false emotion-generating waves at the victim to make her think that the extraterrestrial is emitting cold or menacing vibes.
If an even more intense terrifying experience is desired, the Cabal can render the victim unconscious by either psychotronics or sleeper gas, etc...It should be noted that virtually all of the lurid reports being palmed off on the... more
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Most people assume covert government projects are paid for with separate budget appropriations, passed by a vote of congress. They also assume that while congress may not know what the money is being used for, at least congress knows how much is being spent. Sadly, nothing could be farther from the truth. In the last 50 years, at least $40 trillion (in 2004 dollars) has been siphoned away from legitimate uses and spent on secret projects.
The diversion of public monies on a scale this vast can not be accomplished through conventional parliamentary mechanisms. It requires a coordinated effort at the very highest levels of government. It also requires a continuous flow of maladapted policies and legislation to supply the raw material. This raw material is human victims. In other words, you...
With less than 5% of the world population, America now consumes over 50% of the world's natural resources and manufactured goods. If you're a Japanese factory worker, or a Brazilian farmer, a Canadian cattle rancher, or a European banker. Chances are directly or indirectly, you're working for America. The American people do not receive the fruits of your labors. Contrary to government generated statistics, the economic standard of living in America has been declining for decades.
What follows is a detailed description of the biggest theft in human history. A theft spanning half a century, and involving the diversion of wealth from an entire planet.
The master magicians:
The art of magic involves the skillful capture of attention. A magician says "watch closely while I make this rabbit disappear". He must capture your full attention because without it, you will notice the slight-of-hand performed by his assistant, that creates the illusion of his magic. The diversion of federal government revenue into clandestine projects makes use of this same technique.
Every day on TV news programs, you see the political leaders of America engaged in a grand debate over how to make the world in general, and America in particular, a better place to live. And every few weeks another foreign dignitary makes a pilgrimage to the White House, in order to confer on momentous matters of world peace and security. These men and women are not America's leaders, they are magicians. And you are not their constituency, you are their audience. Their proclamations are as meaningless as a magician's pronouncement of abracadabra. They capture your attention, while their assistants pilfer your wallet, and plunder your children's future.
Most people assume that congress and the president jointly determine how tax revenue is being spent. However, the money is actually spent by semi-autonomous bureaucratic empires, with names like Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Housing and Urban Development (the list goes on and on)...
Each Department is managed by a secretary, nominated by the president, and approved by congress. These managers (secretaries) are the "magician's assistants". And they are responsible for stealing the rabbit, while your watching the magic show. As a general rule, the less public visibility a department secretary has, the more money that bureaucratic empire is diverting (stealing).
Each bureaucratic empire, guided by a magician's assistant (the secretary), creates an annual budget that is submitted to congress and the president for review and approval. 90% of the time, approval is automatic. In other words, most of the time congress and the president don't tell the bureaucratic empires how to spend money, just how much money to spend.Most people assume covert government projects are paid for with separate budget... more
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Background
Does the United States Air Force or one of America's intelligence agencies have a secret hypersonic aircraft capable of a Mach 6 performance? Continually growing evidence suggests that the answer to this question is yes. Perhaps the most well-known event which provides evidence of such a craft's existence is the sighting of a triangular plane over the North Sea in August 1989 by oil-exploration engineer Chris Gibson. As well as the famous "skyquakes" heard over Los Angeles since the early 1990s, found to be heading for the secret Groom Lake (Area 51) installation in the Nevada desert, numerous other facts provide an understanding of how the aircraft's technology works. Rumored to exist but routinely denied by U.S. officials, the name of this aircraft is Aurora.
The outside world uses the name Aurora because a censor's slip let it appear below the SR-71 Blackbird and U-2 in the 1985 Pentagon budget request. Even if this was the actual name of the project, it would have by now been changed after being compromised in such a manner.
The plane's real name has been kept a secret along with its existence. This is not unfamiliar though, the F-117a stealth fighter was kept a secret for over ten years after its first pre-production test flight. The project is what is technically known as a Special Access Program (SAP). More often, such projects are referred to as "black programs."
So what was the first sign of the existence of such an aircraft? On 6 March 1990, one of the United States Air Force's Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spyplanes shattered the official air speed record from Los Angeles to Washington's Dulles Airport. There, a brief ceremony marked the end of the SR-71's operational career. Officially, the SR-71 was being retired to save the $200-$300 million a year it cost to operate the fleet. Some reporters were told the plane had been made redundant by sophisticated spy satellites.
But there was one problem, the USAF made no opposition towards the plane's retirement, and congressional attempts to revive the program were discouraged. Never in the history of the USAF had a program been closed without opposition. Aurora is the missing factor to the silent closure of the SR-71 program.
Testing such a new radical aircraft brings immense costs and inconvenience, not just in the design and development of a prototype aircraft, but also in providing a secret testing place for aircraft that are obviously different from those the public are aware of.
Groom Dry Lake, in the Nevada desert, is home to one of America's elite secret proving grounds. Here is Aurora's most likely test location. Comparing today's Groom Lake with images of the base in the 1970s, it is apparent that many of the larger buildings and hangars were added during the following decade. Also, the Groom Lake test facilityBackground
Does the United States Air Force or one of America's intelligence... more
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BANGKOK (AFP) – Scientists have discovered more than 1,000 species in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong region in the past decade, including a spider as big as a dinner plate, the World Wildlife Fund said Monday.
A rat thought to have become extinct 11 million years ago and a cyanide-laced, shocking pink millipede were among creatures found in what the group called a "biological treasure trove".
The species were all found in the rainforests and wetlands along the Mekong River, which flows through Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.
"It doesn't get any better than this," Stuart Chapman, director of WWF's Greater Mekong Programme, was quoted as saying in a statement by the group.
"We thought discoveries of this scale were confined to the history books."
The WWF report, "First Contact in the Greater Mekong", said that "between 1997 and 2007, at least 1,068 have been officially described by science as being newly discovered species."
These included the world's largest huntsman spider, with a leg span of 30 centimetres (11.8 inches), and the "startlingly" coloured "dragon millipede", which produces the deadly compound cyanide.BANGKOK (AFP) – Scientists have discovered more than 1,000 species in Southeast... more
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