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Thursday, August 23, 2007

Quality products for Europe; trash for America and the Third World

Page update: 29.08.07

Major multinational companies which manufacture sophisticated hazard-free products for the European Union on one production line, often, on another parallel production line under the same roof, produce cheap, toxin-filled versions of the same products for less sophisticated markets in developing countries and the USA.

Examples of products produced for developing countries and the USA, but not for Europe, include hair dye containing coal tar carcinogens, children's toys containing phthalates, and furniture containing formaldehyde.

The recent political evolution of the USA has engendered a culture which allows potentially toxic and mutagenic chemicals, banned by the EU, to be included in everyday Third World and American products. This is for business and legal reasons. They're cheaper and the profit margin is wider. To remove the toxins would be expensive and would lead to the loss of American jobs, it is claimed.

Also, to remove a carcinogen from a product on safety grounds is to admit that you knowingly sold that carcinogen to customers before it was removed. In the political and legal culture of litigant America, such an admission could be ruinous for manufacturing corporations.

Meanwhile Europe tells the multinationals to clean up or they'll buy elsewhere. Simple. And the multinationals clean up a calculated portion of their production so as not to lose the market.

There's been a change. A few years ago, the USA was the single most powerful economic force in the world. But now the European Union has a bigger economy than the USA. The EU exports more goods to the rest of the world than the USA. The EU has a higher GNP than the USA. Forget China. Forget India. Europe is the main man of the moment in many consumer sectors.

The political decay in the USA since the year 2000 has been shadowed by a concomitant economic and business deterioration. The USA owns nobody except its supine electorate. The rest of the world owns America. The power dynamic has shifted. The USA is now in the position that the developing world was in, in relation to the USA, a generation ago. Political immaturity has led to macroeconomic decline. All roads, it is said, eventually lead to Rome.

Sources: AlterNet 15.08.07 - Vanja Petrovic interviews Mark Schapiro, Editorial Director of the Centre for Investigative Reporting at Berkeley;
Centre for Investigative Reporting (Berkeley, California, USA) book review 15.08.07; The Nation (New York, USA) 09.12.04.



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Morgellons mystery

Statins - the honey in the poison-flower

Health issues

Obituary of Hank Texasburger III

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Monday, August 13, 2007

Cause and causation

One tame poodle to another:
"Who created the universe,
Woof woof?"
"God created the universe,
Woof woof."
"Who created God,
Woof woof?"
"Nobody created God.
God has always existed,
Woof woof woof."

If the universe
Needs a cause,
Why doesn’t God
Need a cause?

And if God
Doesn’t need a cause,
Why should the universe
Need a cause?

If our personal agenda requires it,
We can posit:
"God has always existed."
But another equally valid personal agenda
Might posit:
"The universe has always existed."

And anyway,
If we posit:
"God has always existed,"
There is a consequential question
To address.
"How do you know?
Who was the privileged observer
Who noticed this fact
And told you about it?"

You might answer:
"God was the privileged observer.
He told me about it."
This then raises
A couple of other
Consequential questions:
"How do you know it was God
Speaking to you,
Rather than the wino
Behind you
In the fish shop?"
And: "If God did tell you this,
Why hasn't he said
Exactly the same thing
To all those people
Who are more intelligent than you?
Does God only communicate
With the brain-dead?"

There would appear
To be a problem here.
Can anyone see what it is?

Might the whole thing
Simply be
A matter of opinion;
A matter of personal superstition?


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Poodle parlour in Purley

The central question of the universe

The man behind him in the fish shop

More Norfolk koans

Creator creatrix creation creature

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Romanian UFO pictures - 30th July 2007

Page update:18.08.07

These UFO pictures were taken over a wooded mountain in the Ceahlau Massif near Durau, western Moldavia, Romania, at 8.00pm on Monday 30th July 2007.

This UFO was unusual in that it seemed to keep its long axis vertical as it flew. It also appeared to have a bipartite structure with a deep groove running down the length of its fuselage. In the pictures below it showed up as being bright golden and red in colour.

There are three still images here, here and here.
And there are three video clips here (2 mins), here (3 mins) and here (3mins).

It appears that the same UFO, or a similar one, was sighted over the city of PoznaƄ in west-central Poland in April or May 2007. There is a 50 second videoclip of this one here. It was put on YouTube on Tuesday 1st May 2007.

Sources: Romanian UFOnetwork,
OZN Romania and ProTV (Bucharest, Romania).



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SafeSpace - Fastwalkers
A 97 minute UFO documentary on YouTube



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Strange news; strange times

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