The Campaign to Impeach George W. Bush Click here for more information A thirty trillion dollar 'derivatives bubble' ready to burst? A derivative is an 'investment' that 'derives' its value from some underlying asset. Actually to me it seems like a form of gambling, more than a type of investment. The way that it works is that you buy an 'option' to, for example, purchase a stock within a certain time frame at a certain set price. An option might cost you a dollar. Let us say that you option 1000 shares of a stock going for 20 dollars and the cost to you is 1000 dollars, and you agree to purchase the stock for 25 dollars in the future. Now if the stock goes up to 40 dollars your 'option' which only cost you a thousand bucks returns a profit in this example of 15,000 thousand dollars (you buy at 25 but the stock is at that time actually worth 40). However if the stock drops to 15 dollars you lose 10,000 dollars (you still have to buy it at 25 even though it is presently only worth 15). Apparently the markets are leveraged to the tune of 30 trillion (yes, that's right TRILLION) dollars in these 'derivatives' (this being the type of financial gambling that ruined Orange County and destroyed a bank in England several years ago). Now in the three weeks before the events of September 11th the stock market plunged 900 points due to the deepening economic crisis, and after the 11th the downward plunge continued with the stock markets having their worst week since the 1920s. Now given that there are banks and wealthy investors and fund managers out there all leveraged up to their nostrils in these derivatives you can imagine the kind of panic that must be gripping Wall Street these days as everyone under the sun wonders how they are going to come up with the cash to buy all those 'derived' or 'leveraged' stocks that are more than likely not worth anything close to what they gambled they would be when they went gambling on those derivatives. This reminds of the commentary on the last trading day of September as stocks climbed upwards as, apparently, to put it tactfully, fund managers 'adjusted their portfolios' because it was the end of the quarter (what this means is that they made many trades of small amounts of stocks between one another in a straightforward manipulation of the market upwards to make their quarterly report look better than it might have, and, perhaps they also have some of those derivatives to worry about as well...) As a commentator on the Guerillanews site put it..."Now, given the fact that the economic indicators were for a recession, if not depression, by the end of October (for which the US government and Wall Street would have had to have taken responsibility), the now certain global recession that will follow the World Trade Center attacks, now has someone convenient to blame it on." The article on derivatives came from http://www.guerrillanews.com/ US asks Israel for "information on assassination operations" - IRNA Al-Khalil, Oct. 9, IRNA -- The United States has asked Israel for specific and detailed information on the "assassination techniques" the Zionist state used against Palestinians for possible application in Afghanistan. The Israeli Hebrew paper, the Yedeot Ahranot, reported that American military circles sought and received comprehensive information on the methods and techniques the Israeli occupation army employed in assassinating Palestinian freedom fighters and political leaders. Columnist Alex Feishman, a Yedeot Ahranot's columnist, said the Americans were apparently intending to apply the Israeli methods of assassination against Osama bin Laden and his group in Afghanistan. Israel used a variety of methods to murder Palestinians intifada activists and members of resistance groups, including apache helicopter gunships, laser-guided bombs fired from fighter airplanes, car-bomb attacks, and death squads. As many as 50 Palestinians are believed to have been assassinated by forces of the Israeli army since the Palestinian intifada or uprising against Israeli occupation and apartheid more than a year ago. UK `preparing ground troops' for Afghan War - IRNA London, Oct. 9, IRNA - Britain was reported Tuesday to be preparing ground troops for participation in operations in Afghanistan. Some of Britain's 24,000 troops on military exercises in Oman may be earmarked and "could be soon in the middle of a war," according to a senior army commander quoted by London's Evening Standard. Unemployment in Australia up - IRNA Unemployment in Australia "rose from 8.8 percent in July to 9.7 percent in August and to a high of 10.7 percent in September. The survey, by the Roy Morgan Research Center for the Bulletin magazine, blamed the increase on economic uncertainty sparked by the September 11 terrorist attack and the collapse of Ansett." The Strategic interests that lie behind the Afghan campaign - Once again there are oil interests lurking in the background of this particular campaign, in particular the desire to build a pipeline through Afghan territory to carry oil from the Southern Muslim states that were once part of the Soviet Union to sea ports in Pakistan (thus taking the pipeline through Afghanistan). The business recorder reported in March - KARACHI (March 24) : UNOCAL is trying to again jump into the Turkmenistan gas pipeline project it had quit about a year ago on account of alleged gross abuse of human rights in Afghanistan. The US company is in dialogue with the Afghan authorities seeking guaranteed protection for its personnel while working on the Afghani terrain, reliable sources told Business Recorder. This is an interesting manoeuvre on the part of the company since Afghanistan has been under severe US sanctions for being a patron of terrorists. Drought leads to strict water rationing in Algiers - The Middle Eastern Times ALGIERS Algerian authorities on October 1 announced water rationing in the capital Algiers, restricting supplies to one 15-hour period every three days as a result of a crippling drought. The state-run water utility EPEAL said in a statement carried by the official APS news agency that the rationing was necessary because of a sharp drop in the rate at which reservoirs supplying the capital were filling. Algiers residents will have running water from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. once every three days until further notice, it said. The state body in charge of dams, Agence Nationale des Barrages (ANB), has said the water in Algeria's 48 reservoirs fell to a record low 38.4 percent of capacity on August 22. The Keddara reservoir supplying Algiers was 17 percent full and two dams in Medea province, just south of Algiers, were completely empty. The government has had to ration water in Algiers for the past four years, though less stringently, because of the water shortage. By the way the satellite pics over the last few days show a build up of water vapor and clouds over Algeria, so hopefully Algeria is getting drought relief. The images below are of cloud and water vapor over the populated areas of Algeria and are pretty consistent of what I have seen each day recently. (Pray for rains and more drought relief.) Arab Regimes Breed Discontent and Anger at U.S. - Published on Monday, October 8, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times Analysts Say Washington is allied with repressive governments and hasn't pushed democracy. by T. Christian Miller "Stand together with Afghanistan!" "You see," Dasmal, 34, said, pointing to his phone. "Even the rich are willing to sacrifice their lives. They may be wearing jeans or speaking English, but they'll go to the holy war, even if our government tries to stop them." Even before the U.S. attack on Afghanistan on Sunday, a burning hatred of the U.S. simmered in much of the Arab world--including here, one of the most cosmopolitan and moderate Arab nations. The explanation for the anger caroming through cafes and marketplaces is the same as elsewhere in the Arab world: the U.S. support of Israel and its alleged indifference to the Palestinians killed in the year-old intifada, and long-term sanctions against Iraq blamed for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of women and children. But deeper than those obvious reasons, analysts and ordinary citizens say, is another factor, an uncomfortable reality long ignored by the West: The governments of the Arab nations are among the most repressive in the world. In most of the countries, there is no free press. There is no freedom of association. Dissent is crushed. Torture is common. Opposition parties are weak or ineffective. As a result, the rulers of Arab countries are often out of step with their people. So although most Arab leaders have pledged cooperation in the U.S.-led battle against terrorism, their people are far less supportive ... Experts say Bin Laden is able to appeal to rank-and-file Arabs angered by years of government oppression and factors such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "The lack of democracy and support of human rights has contributed to a sense of frustration, anger and humiliation," said Judy Barsalou, grant director with the United States Institute of Peace, a congressionally funded agency ... U.S. alliances with repressive regimes during the Cold War often wound up exploding, such as the U.S.-backed dictatorship in Nicaragua, which was ousted by the Marxist Sandinistas, or the U.S.-supported shah of Iran, whose ouster gave rise to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ... As the U.S. embarks on what President Bush calls a fight to preserve values of freedom and democracy, it is rushing to seek closer ties with governments that are largely hostile to just such values ... The U.S. has never pushed hard for democracy in the area. In large part, this is because of the fear that fundamentalist extremists could take over after democratic elections ... But it is also because the U.S. has more important concerns in the region than democracy, analysts say. "There's a long-standing tradition to look away from human rights and democracy to protect oil and Israel," ... The lack of democracy benefits the countries' leaders, who often have vested interests in maintaining the region's stability--to preserve personal oil fortunes, for example ... In fact, the original aim of Bin Laden and many other terrorist leaders was to overthrow Arab governments they considered illegitimate. When those governments cracked down, the groups turned to attack the United States, accused of propping up the authoritarian regimes, as well as supporting Israel. " October page one October page two October page four October page five October page six October page seven

A Unified Field Theory

The Unified Field Theory
is also available as a zip file -> unified.zip

Introduction :The Pioneer Effect and the New Physics. A brief description of the new physics required to explain the 'Pioneer Effect', which is the constant deceleration of space craft as they fly through space.