Filed under: "Vampires", Anonymous, Humpty dumpty, M, benedict, catholic church, devil, evil spirit, exorcists, john paul, pope, popes, problem, satan, scientology, two churches | Tags: "Vampires", Anonymous, benedict, catholic church, devil, evil spirit, exorcists, Humpty dumpty, john paul, M, pope, popes, problem, satan, scientology, two churches
Scientology Critique – Gregorian University Rome
A P P E N D I X S E V E N Scientology s A True Religion Urbano Alonso Galan Doctor in … This was recognized by Vatican Counsel II itself in its document …
www.scribd.com/doc/2227180/Scientology-Critique-Gregorian-University-Rome – 132k -
Filed under: Fabio Capello, football, fuming, in corruption case, italy, of prosecution, olitics, over threat, sport | Tags: Fabio Capello, football, fuming, in corruption case, italy, of prosecution, olitics, over threat, sport
Fabio Capello, the England manager, is furious after being threatened with prosecution for allegedly withholding information and giving false testimony during the trial of Luciano Moggi, the former Juventus general director.
Capello was targeted by Luca Palamara, the public prosecutor, after giving evidence in Rome yesterday and notified that a case may be brought against him under article 372 of Italy’s penal code. Although the likeliest punishment is a fine, giving false evidence can carry a sentence of between two and six years in prison.
Capello’s legal team are convinced that Palamara will not follow through with his threat, however, although even the potential for such a case would come as a huge embarrassment to Capello and the Football Association. Capello is said by friends to be deeply upset and angry at the implication that he was in some way dishonest. It is his belief that his presence was not required to prosecute Moggi successfully and he was only brought to the trial as a witness to give it greater impact, owing to his fame in Italy and status as a successful manager.
The conflict concerns his evidence when he was asked about an interview he gave to the Rome-based newspaper, Corriere dello Sport, in 2002 during which he mentioned the danger of a monopoly developing because of the influence of the Gea World sports agency, which represented a significant number of players in the Italian league. Capello was coach of AS Roma at the time and complained that although his assistant, Franco Baldini, often identified potential transfer targets, those players contracted to Gea World proved hard to procure.
The company was part-owned by Moggi, a former Juventus executive at the centre of a match-fixing scandal two years ago, who is on trial along with five others accused of using threats or violence to pressure players to join his agency.
Capello’s accusation about Gea World was considered a serious plank of the prosecution case, particularly as he subsequently found Gea-contracted players easier to sign when he left AS Roma to manage Juventus. Yet when questioned about his statements yesterday, it was alleged that Capello showed reticence in his answers.
Asked about the newspaper interview, he replied: “I did that interview because I thought it was right to do something for Roma. I knew about Gea, I knew that many players were gravitating towards that company.” But Capello added that all he knew about Gea “was that it existed, I didn’t even know who ran it”. It is this statement that is believed to have brought the accusation of withholding testimony.
Despite his earlier comments, Capello also maintained that he had never dealt with player contracts while working in Italy and claimed no knowledge of players being put under pressure to sign contracts.
In an hour of testimony, he told the court: “I have never heard about players being put under pressure or of incidents relating to players’ contracts. At Roma and then at Juventus when I was boss, I only dealt with coaching decisions.”
Palamara said that Capello and Antonio Giraudo, a former Juventus director, had been “too reticent” in giving evidence. He said the men had claimed too often that they “did not remember” or “did not know” in reply to questions.
Last night Capello’s lawyers insisted he would be cleared of the claims, releasing a bullish statement. “We are really surprised by the public prosecutor’s declaration,” it read. “Mr Capello was heard as a witness in the proceedings against the Gea company and confirmed before the Court of Rome all of the declarations that he had already provided to the public prosecutor during the investigation.
“At the end of the hearing, Mr Capello was certain that in his capacity as a witness, he had given all the information required of him to the prosecutor and the court.”
An FA spokesman refused to comment, saying that Capello’s court appearance was a private matter.
Filed under: British team, Human, Science, animal, embryos, grief, makes, mixed, mixed human | Tags: animal, British team, embryos, grief, Human, makes, mixed, Science
Embryos containing both human and animal material have been created in Britain for the first time, a month before the House of Commons is to vote on new laws to regulate the controversial research.
A team at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne announced tonight that it had successfully generated “admixed embryos” by adding human DNA to empty cow eggs, in the first experiment of its kind in the UK.
The achievement will heighten debate over the ethics of human-animal embryos, as the Commons prepares to debate the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill next month.
While Parliament has been promised a free vote on clauses in the legislation that would permit admixed embryos, their creation is already allowed under existing legislation, subject to licence from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
The Newcastle group, led by Lyle Armstrong, was awarded one of the first two such licences in January, together with another team at King’s College, London, headed by Professor Stephen Minger.
The new Bill will formalise their legal status, should it be passed by Parliament.
Admixed embryos are widely supported by the scientific community and patient groups, as they provide an opportunity to produce powerful stem cell models for investigating diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes, and for developing new drugs.
Their creation, however, has been vociferously opposed by religious groups, particularly the Roman Catholic church. Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the head of the Catholic church in Scotland, described the work last month as “experiments of Frankenstein proportion”.
The admixed embryos created by the Newcastle group are of a kind known as cytoplasmic hybrids or “cybrids”, which are made by placing the nucleus from a human cell into an animal egg that has had its nucleus removed. The genetic material in the resulting embryos is 99.9 per cent human.
The BBC reported that the Newcastle cybrids lived for three days and that the largest grew to contain 32 cells. The ultimate aim is to grow these for six days and then to extract embryonic stem cells for use in research.
Once the technique has been tested, scientists hope to create cybrids from the DNA of patients with genetic diseases. The resulting stem cells could then be used as models of those diseases to provide insights into their progress and to test new treatments.
It is already illegal to culture human-animal embryos for more than 14 days or to implant them in the womb of a woman or animal and these prohibitions will remain in the new legislation.
By using cow eggs in their experiments scientists can avoid using human eggs, which are in very short supply. There are also ethical difficulties involved in collecting human eggs for research, as the donation process carries a small risk to women.
Professor John Burn, a member of the Newcastle team, said: “This is licensed work which has been carefully evaluated. This is a process in a dish and we are dealing with a clump of cells which would never go on to develop. It’s a laboratory process and these embryos would never be implanted into anyone.
“We now have preliminary data which looks promising but this is very much work in progress and the next step is to get the embryos to survive to around six days when we can hopefully derive stem cells from them.”
Even though the experiments have already been approved by the HFEA they will deepen controversy over human-animal embryos because MPs have yet to have an opportunity to vote on the issue.
At present, the work is permitted under the watchdog’s interpretation of the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, but this legislation does not specifically mention admixed embryos.
The Newcastle team’s decision to announce their success on television, before their results have been published in a peer-reviewed journal, will also trigger criticism from scientists.
Medical researchers said last night that the experiments are important but that they wanted to see published details before passing judgement on their merits.
Martin Bobrow, Emeritus Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Cambridge, said: “I have no idea whether this is true or not but Dr Armstrong has been working towards this for a long time and has recently been given a license to pursue this research. It is very unhelpful to speculate about how significant they are until we have more facts.
“If it turns out to be true that he has so rapidly been able to create an embryo that could produce a medically useful stem cell line, then that would be a very strong argument for pursuing that particular technique.”
Peter Andrews, Professor of Biomedical Science, at the University of Sheffield, said: “The production of embryos by transferring the nucleus of an adult human cell to a human egg from which its own nucleus has already proved very difficult, let alone by combining a human nucleus with an animal egg. Apparently these researchers have achieved some success, but by using the nucleus from a very early embryonic cell, which might be easier to reprogram than an adult cell.
“However, at the moment it is impossible to assess the significance of this report until we know more details of what has been achieved, the results have been repeated and, importantly, they have been reviewed by independent researchers in the usual way.”
Filed under: Olympics committee, Stop blocking, china, tells, the internet | Tags: china, Olympics committee, Stop blocking, tells, the internet
China’s Great Firewall must be lifted during the Olympic Games to ensure free access to the rest of the world.
That was the message from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the Beijing organisers of the Games during meetings that will be the last official sessions between IOC inspectors and the Chinese hosts before the Games open on August 8.
Kevan Gosper, vice-chairman of the IOC co-ordinating commission, said blocking the internet during the Games would reflect very poorly on the host nation. “Even this morning we discussed and insisted again. Our concern is that the press is able to operate as it has at previous Games — at Games time.”
China routinely blocks access to certain sites on the internet and can implement at will a blacklist of words that cannot be found and will crash a search engine. Since angry Tibetans rioted in Lhasa last month — leaving at least 18 people dead and hundreds of burnt shops and offices — barriers to certain parts of the internet have been enforced with even greater vigour.
Mr Gosper said that the Chinese had an obligation under the host city agreement to open internet access to 30,000 accredited and non-accredited journalists expected to attend the August Games. “There was some criticism that the internet closed down during events relating to Tibet in previous weeks, but this is not Games time.”
He voiced confidence that the Chinese understood the need for open access to the internet and that they would comply.
In a sign of possible loosening of internet controls, China a few days ago lifted a block on the BBC website that had been in place for years. However, Wikipedia remained outside the firewall — apparently because of its many references to such sensitive issues as the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the Dalai Lama and Tibet. Many international blogs cannot be accessed because their host servers are blocked.
In terms of security for the Games, Mr Gosper described China’s preparations as excellent.
In a sign of Chinese anxiety about any possible disruption to the smooth flow of the event, President Hu Jintao has said that security guarantees were essential to ensure China’s international reputation. He told the newspaper of China’s anti-riot forces, the People’s Armed Police News, that: “Without security guarantees there cannot be a successful Olympic Games, and without security guarantees, the national image will be lost.”
The newspaper said a “political mobilisation order” had been issued to the paramilitary, telling them to prepare for an arduous time ensuring order and control before and during the Games in August. “The drums of war are sounding, a decisive battle is at hand. For the sake of the Chinese nation’s image and for the honour of the People’s Armed Police, let us never forget our duty.”
Filed under: Pelosi: Dem race should go on | Tags: clinton, cover-up, democrats, election, News, obama, pelosi
“These super delegates have the right to vote their conscience and who they think would be the better president, or who can win, but they also then should get involved in the campaigns and make their power known there,” Pelosi said in an interview aired Tuesday on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Pelosi recently drew objections from Clinton backers when she said she shared Obama’s view that super delegates — nearly 800 elected officials and party leaders — should be guided by the vote for pledged delegates. Obama leads Clinton in pledged delegates earned in primaries and caucuses, but Clinton leads Obama in endorsements from super delegates. Overall, Obama has 1,632 delegates to Clinton’s 1,500, according to the latest Associated Press tally. It takes 2,024 delegates to win the nomination.
Pelosi repeated her view that it would it be harmful to the party if super delegates were perceived to overturn the will of voters, but made clear she was not suggesting Clinton withdraw from the race.
“I think the election has to run its course,” Pelosi said. “I think that for all that I have said about respecting the will of the people that the inference to be drawn from that is that we have to continue the election in terms of hearing from the people.
“I do think that it is important for us to get behind one candidate a long time before we go to the Democratic National Convention if we hope to win in November,” Pelosi added.
Last week, Pelosi received a letter from 20 top Democratic donors who support Clinton, expressing unhappiness that Pelosi appeared to be backing Obama’s position on pledged delegates and urging her to clarify her position.
Asked about the letter, Pelosi said: “It wasn’t important to me.”
Barring a complete meltdown by Obama, Clinton has almost no chance of surpassing his number of pledged delegates, even if she wins big in Pennsylvania’s April 22 primary, the largest remaining cache of delegates. But some Democrats fear such victories would encourage her to keep criticizing Obama — her only hope for the nomination — and thus heighten doubts about Obama’s ability to defeat Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain in the fall.
Obama, in an interview taped Monday and aired Tuesday on NBC’s Today Show, said the former first lady “has certainly earned the right to stay in this race as long as she wants … I think she deserves to be able to run and make her case.”
Some Democratic strategists have warned of damage to the party’s chances in November if women — especially the older, white working-class women who are Clinton’s base — sense a mostly male party establishment is unfairly muscling her out of the race. Women make up the majority of Democratic voters nationwide.
Recently, I stumbled onto a post that I really enjoyed. Thomas Baekdal broke down the type of ads he’s found on sites thanks to Google AdSense that are either irrelevant, spam or adult related, and he notes that they are increasing in frequency.
You might think that I am exaggerating the problem, but I found that spam, scam, phishing and adult ads accounts for a staggering 36% of all the ads on this site. The irrelevant (but non-spam) ads account for a further 7%. And, a single company accounted for 18% of all the spam ads.
Spam and spyware ads are bad enough, but I am absolutely annoyed by the adult ads.
He includes a variety of screenshots to prove his point, and just to drive it home for those that still don’t agree with him, he’s included some text from others with the same complaints.
The best part though is the fact that AdSense is still in the far right hand side of his site. So the question becomes, even if AdSense did become the home of only “junk” ads, would we still plaster it on our sites to make a dime or two here and there?
Filed under: Lidl folgte Mitarbeitern bis auf die Toi | Tags: Entschuldigung, Lidl folgte Mitarbeitern bis auf die Toi, newspaper, photos, zeitung
