Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter—unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal.

In this Dec. 10, 2009 photo taken near Indonesia and released by Museum Victoria, a veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus hides in coconut shell halves it assembled.. Australian scientists have filmed the octopus collecting coconut shells for shelter, unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal. (AP Photo/Museum Victoria, Roger Steene

The scientists filmed the veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 65 feet (20 m), and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot.

Julian Finn and Mark Norman of Museum Victoria in Melbourne observed the odd activity in four of the creatures during a series of dive trips to North Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia between 1998 and 2008. Their findings were published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology.

“I was gobsmacked,” said Finn, a research biologist at the museum who specializes in cephalopods. “I mean, I’ve seen a lot of octopuses hiding in shells, but I’ve never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor. I was trying hard not to laugh.”

Octopuses often use foreign objects as shelter. But the scientists found the veined octopus going a step further by preparing the shells, carrying them long distances and reassembling them as shelter elsewhere.

That’s an example of tool use, which has never been recorded in invertebrates before, Finn said.

“What makes it different from a hermit crab is this octopus collects shells for later use, so when it’s transporting it, it’s not getting any protection from it,” Finn said. “It’s that collecting it to use it later that is unusual.”

The researchers think the creatures probably once used shells in the same way. But once humans began cutting coconuts in half and discarding the shells into the ocean, the octopuses discovered an even better kind of shelter, Finn said.

The findings are significant, in that they reveal just how capable the creatures are of complex behavior, said Simon Robson, associate professor of tropical biology at James Cook University in Townsville.

“Octopuses have always stood out as appearing to be particularly intelligent invertebrates,” Robson said. “They have a fairly well-developed sense of vision and they have a fairly intelligent brain. So I think it shows the behavioral capabilities that these organisms have.”

There is always debate in the scientific community about how to define tool use in the animal kingdom, Robson said. The Australian researchers defined a tool as an object carried or maintained for future use. But other scientists could define it differently, which means it’s difficult to say for certain whether this is the first evidence of such behavior in invertebrates, Robson said.

Still, the findings are interesting, he said.

“It’s another example where we can think about how similar humans are to the rest of the world,” Robson said. “We are just a continuum of the entire planet.”

If proved this marks the 11th species, in addition to human, that have learned to use tools.

Tuesday December 15,2009 By Dan Parkinson UK News.com

HERE are the 100 reasons, released in a dossier issued by the European Foundation, why climate change is natural and not man-made:

1) There is “no real scientific proof” that the current warming is caused by the rise of greenhouse gases from man’s activity.

2) Man-made carbon dioxide emissions throughout human history constitute less than 0.00022 percent of the total naturally emitted from the mantle of the earth during geological history.
6) Significant changes in climate have continually occurred throughout geologic time.

3) Warmer periods of the Earth’s history came around 800 years before rises in CO2 levels.

4) After World War II, there was a huge surge in recorded CO2 emissions but global temperatures fell for four decades after 1940.

5) Throughout the Earth’s history, temperatures have often been warmer than now and CO2 levels have often been higher – more than ten times as high.

7) The 0.7C increase in the average global temperature over the last hundred years is entirely consistent with well-established, long-term, natural climate trends. 
Top of Form

The IPCC theory is driven by just 60 scientists and favourable reviewers not the 4,000 usually cited.

9) Leaked e-mails from British climate scientists – in a scandal known as “Climate-gate” - suggest that that has been manipulated to exaggerate global warming

10) A large body of scientific research suggests that the sun is responsible for the greater share of climate change during the past hundred years.

11) Politicians and activiists claim rising sea levels are a direct cause of global warming but sea levels rates have been increasing steadily since the last ice age 10,000 ago

12) Philip Stott, Emeritus Professor of Biogeography at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London says climate change is too complicated to be caused by just one factor, whether CO2 or clouds

13) Peter Lilley MP said last month that “fewer people in Britain than in any other country believe in the importance of global warming. That is despite the fact that our Government and our political class—predominantly—are more committed to it than their counterparts in any other country in the world”.

14) In pursuit of the global warming rhetoric, wind farms will do very little to nothing to reduce CO2 emissions

15) Professor Plimer, Professor of Geology and Earth Sciences at the University of Adelaide, stated that the idea of taking a single trace gas in the atmosphere, accusing it and finding it guilty of total responsibility for climate change, is an “absurdity”

16) A Harvard University astrophysicist and geophysicist, Willie Soon, said he is “embarrassed and puzzled” by the shallow science in papers that support the proposition that the earth faces a climate crisis caused by global warming.

17) The science of what determines the earth’s temperature is in fact far from settled or understood.

18) Despite activist concerns over CO2 levels, CO2 is a minor greenhouse gas, unlike water vapour which is tied to climate concerns, and which we can’t even pretend to control

19) A petition by scientists trying to tell the world that the political and media portrayal of global warming is false was put forward in the Heidelberg Appeal in 1992. Today, more than 4,000 signatories, including 72 Nobel Prize winners, from 106 countries have signed it.

20) It is claimed the average global temperature increased at a dangerously fast rate in the 20th century but the recent rate of average global temperature rise has been between 1 and 2 degrees C per century - within natural rates

21) Professor Zbigniew Jaworowski, Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw, Poland says the earth’s temperature has more to do with cloud cover and water vapor than CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.

22) There is strong evidence from solar studies which suggests that the Earth’s current temperature stasis will be followed by climatic cooling over the next few decades

23) It is myth that receding glaciers are proof of global warming as glaciers have been receding and growing cyclically for many centuries

24) It is a falsehood that the earth’s poles are warming because that is natural variation and while the western Arctic may be getting somewhat warmer we also see that the Eastern Arctic and Greenland are getting colder

25) The IPCC claims climate driven “impacts on biodiversity are significant and of key relevance” but those claims are simply not supported by scientific research

26) The IPCC threat of climate change to the world’s species does not make sense as wild species are at least one million years old, which means they have all been through hundreds of climate cycles

27) Research goes strongly against claims that CO2-induced global warming would cause catastrophic disintegration of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets.

28) Despite activist concerns over CO2 levels, rising CO2 levels are our best hope of raising crop yields to feed an ever-growing population

29) The biggest climate change ever experienced on earth took place around 700 million years ago

30) The slight increase in temperature which has been observed since 1900 is entirely consistent with well-established, long-term natural climate cycles

31) Despite activist concerns over CO2 levels, rising CO2 levels of some so-called “greenhouse gases” may be contributing to higher oxygen levels and global cooling, not warming

32) Accurate satellite, balloon and mountain top observations made over the last three decades have not shown any significant change in the long term rate of increase in global temperatures

33) Today’s CO2 concentration of around 385 ppm is very low compared to most of the earth’s history – we actually live in a carbon-deficient atmosphere

34) It is a myth that CO2 is the most common greenhouse gas because greenhouse gases form about 3% of the atmosphere by volume, and CO2 constitutes about 0.037% of the atmosphere

35) It is a myth that computer models verify that CO2 increases will cause significant global warming because computer models can be made to “verify” anything

36) There is no scientific or statistical evidence whatsoever that global warming will cause more storms and other weather extremes

37) One statement deleted from a UN report in 1996 stated that “none of the studies cited above has shown clear evidence that we can attribute the observed climate changes to increases in greenhouse gases”

38) The world “warmed” by 0.07 +/- 0.07 degrees C from 1999 to 2008, not the 0.20 degrees C expected by the IPCC

39) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says “it is likely that future tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes) will become more intense” but there has been no increase in the intensity or frequency of tropical cyclones globally

40) Rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere can be shown not only to have a negligible effect on the Earth’s many ecosystems, but in some cases to be a positive help to many organisms

41) Researchers who compare and contrast climate change impact on civilizations found warm periods are beneficial to mankind and cold periods harmful

42) The Met Office asserts we are in the hottest decade since records began but this is precisely what the world should expect if the climate is cyclical

43) Rising CO2 levels increase plant growth and make plants more resistant to drought and pests

44) The historical increase in the air’s CO2 content has improved human nutrition by raising crop yields during the past 150 years

45) The increase of the air’s CO2 content has probably helped lengthen human lifespans since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution

46) The IPCC alleges that “climate change currently contributes to the global burden of disease and premature deaths” but the evidence shows that higher temperatures and rising CO2 levels has helped global populations

47) In May of 2004, the Russian Academy of Sciences published a report concluding that the Kyoto Protocol has no scientific grounding at all.

48) The “Climate-gate” scandal pointed to a expensive public campaign of disinformation and the denigration of scientists who opposed the belief that CO2 emissions were causing climate change
 
49) The head of Britain’s climate change watchdog has predicted households will need to spend up to £15,000 on a full energy efficiency makeover if the Government is to meet its ambitious targets for cutting carbon emissions.

50) Wind power is unlikely to be the answer to our energy needs. The wind power industry argues that there are “no direct subsidies” but it involves a total subsidy of as much as £60 per MWh which falls directly on electricity consumers. This burden will grow in line with attempts to achieve Wind power targets, according to a recent OFGEM report.
 
51) Wind farms are not an efficient way to produce energy. The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) accepts a figure of 75 per cent back-up power is required.
 
52) Global temperatures are below the low end of IPCC predictions not at “at the top end of IPCC estimates”
 
53) Climate alarmists have raised the concern over acidification of the oceans but Tom Segalstad from Oslo University in Norway , and others, have noted that the composition of ocean water – including CO2, calcium, and water – can act as a buffering agent in the acidification of the oceans.
 
54) The UN’s IPCC computer models of human-caused global warming predict the emergence of a “hotspot” in the upper troposphere over the tropics.  Former researcher in the Australian Department of Climate Change, David Evans, said there is no evidence of such a hotspot

55) The argument that climate change is a of result of global warming caused by human activity is the argument of flat Earthers.  
 
56) The manner in which US President Barack Obama sidestepped Congress to order emission cuts shows how undemocratic and irrational the entire international decision-making process has become with regards to emission-target setting.
 
57) William Kininmonth, a former head of the National Climate Centre and a consultant to the World Meteorological Organisation, wrote “the likely extent of global temperature rise from a doubling of CO2 is less than 1C. Such warming is well within the envelope of variation experienced during the past 10,000 years and insignificant in the context of glacial cycles during the past million years, when Earth has been predominantly very cold and covered by extensive ice sheets.”
 
58) Canada has shown the world targets derived from the existing Kyoto commitments were always unrealistic and did not work for the country.
 
59) In the lead up to the Copenhagen summit, David Davis MP said of previous climate summits, at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and Kyoto in 1997 that many had promised greater cuts, but “neither happened”, but we are continuing along the same lines.

60) The UK ’s environmental policy has a long-term price tag of about £55 billion, before taking into account the impact on its economic growth. 
 
61) The UN’s panel on climate change warned that Himalayan glaciers could melt to a fifth of current levels by 2035. J. Graham Cogley a professor at Ontario Trent University, claims this inaccurate stating the UN authors got the date from an earlier report wrong by more than 300 years.
 
62) Under existing Kyoto obligations the EU has attempted to claim success, while actually increasing emissions by 13 per cent, according to Lord Lawson. In addition the EU has pursued this scheme by purchasing “offsets” from countries such as China paying them billions of dollars to destroy atmospheric pollutants, such as CFC-23, which were manufactured purely in order to be destroyed.
 
63) It is claimed that the average global temperature was relatively unchanging in pre-industrial times but sky-rocketed since 1900, and will increase by several degrees more over the next 100 years according to Penn State University researcher Michael Mann. There is no convincing empirical evidence that past climate was unchanging, nor that 20th century changes in average global temperature were unusual or unnatural.
 
64) Michael Mann of Penn State University has actually shown that the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age did in fact exist, which contrasts with his earlier work which produced the “hockey stick graph” which showed a constant temperature over the past thousand years or so followed by a recent dramatic upturn.
 
65) The globe’s current approach to climate change in which major industrialised countries agree to nonsensical targets for their CO2 emissions by a given date, as it has been under the Kyoto system, is very expensive.
 
66) The “Climate-gate” scandal revealed that a scientific team had emailed one another about using a “trick” for the sake of concealing a “decline” in temperatures when looking at the history of the Earth’s temperature. 
 
67) Global temperatures have not risen in any statistically-significant sense for 15 years and have actually been falling for nine years. The “Climate-gate” scandal revealed a scientific team had expressed dismay at the fact global warming was contrary to their predictions and admitted their inability to explain it was “a travesty”.
 
68) The IPCC predicts that a warmer planet will lead to more extreme weather, including drought, flooding, storms, snow, and wildfires. But over the last century, during which the IPCC claims the world experienced more rapid warming than any time in the past two millennia, the world did not experience significantly greater trends in any of these extreme weather events.
 
69) In explaining the average temperature standstill we are currently experiencing, the Met Office Hadley Centre ran a series of computer climate predictions and found in many of the computer runs there were decade-long standstills but none for 15 years – so it expects global warming to resume swiftly.

70) Richard Lindzen, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote: “The notion of a static, unchanging climate is foreign to the history of the Earth or any other planet with a fluid envelope.  Such hysteria (over global warming) simply represents the scientific illiteracy of much of the public, the susceptibility of the public to the substitution of repetition for truth.”
 
71) Despite the 1997 Kyoto Protocol’s status as the flagship of the fight against climate change it has been a failure.
 
72) The first phase of the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which ran from 2005 to 2007 was a failure. Huge over-allocation of permits to pollute led to a collapse in the price of carbon from €33 to just €0.20 per tonne meaning the system did not reduce emissions at all. 
 
73) The EU trading scheme, to manage carbon emissions has completely failed and actually allows European businesses to duck out of making their emissions reductions at home by offsetting, which means paying for cuts to be made overseas instead.
 
74) To date “cap and trade” carbon markets have done almost nothing to reduce emissions.
 
75) In the United States , the cap-and-trade is an approach designed to control carbon emissions and will impose huge costs upon American citizens via a carbon tax on all goods and services produced in the United States. The average family of four can expect to pay an additional $1700, or £1,043, more each year. It is predicted that the United States will lose more than 2 million jobs as the result of cap-and-trade schemes. 
 
76) Dr Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, has indicated that out of the 21 climate models tracked by the IPCC the differences in warming exhibited by those models is mostly the result of different strengths of positive cloud feedback – and that increasing CO2 is insufficient to explain global-average warming in the last 50 to 100 years.
 
77) Why should politicians devote our scarce resources in a globally competitive world to a false and ill-defined problem, while ignoring the real problems the entire planet faces, such as: poverty, hunger, disease or terrorism.
 
78) A proper analysis of ice core records from the past 650,000 years demonstrates that temperature increases have come before, and not resulted from, increases in CO2 by hundreds of years.
 
79) Since the cause of global warming is mostly natural, then there is in actual fact very little we can do about it. (We are still not able to control the sun).
 
80) A substantial number of the panel of 2,500 climate scientists on the United Nation’s International Panel on Climate Change, which created a statement on scientific unanimity on climate change and man-made global warming, were found to have serious concerns.
 
81) The UK’s Met Office has been forced this year to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by revelations about the data.
 
82)  Politicians and activists push for renewable energy sources such as wind turbines under the rhetoric of climate change, but it is essentially about money – under the system of Renewable Obligations. Much of the money is paid for by consumers in electricity bills. It amounts to £1 billion a year.
 
83) The “Climate-gate” scandal revealed that a scientific team had tampered with their own data so as to conceal inconsistencies and errors.  
 
84) The “Climate-gate” scandal revealed that a scientific team had campaigned for the removal of a learned journal’s editor, solely because he did not share their willingness to debase science for political purposes.
 
85) Ice-core data clearly show that temperatures change centuries before concentrations of atmospheric CO2 change. Thus, there appears to be little evidence for insisting that changes in concentrations of CO2 are the cause of past temperature and climate change.
 
86) There are no experimentally verified processes explaining how CO2 concentrations can fall in a few centuries without falling temperatures – in fact it is changing temperatures which cause changes in CO2 concentrations, which is consistent with experiments that show CO2 is the atmospheric gas most readily absorbed by water.
 
87) The Government’s Renewable Energy Strategy contains a massive increase in electricity generation by wind power costing around £4 billion a year over the next twenty years. The benefits will be only £4 to £5 billion overall (not per annum). So costs will outnumber benefits by a range of between eleven and seventeen times.
 
88) Whilst CO2 levels have indeed changed for various reasons, human and otherwise, just as they have throughout history, the CO2 content of the atmosphere has increased since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and the growth rate has now been constant for the past 25 years.
 
89) It is a myth that CO2 is a pollutant, because nitrogen forms 80% of our atmosphere and human beings could not live in 100% nitrogen either: CO2 is no more a pollutant than nitrogen is and CO2 is essential to life.

90) Politicians and climate activists make claims to rising sea levels but certain members in the IPCC chose an area to measure in Hong Kong that is subsiding. They used the record reading of 2.3 mm per year rise of sea level.
 
91) The accepted global average temperature statistics used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that no ground-based warming has occurred since 1998.
 
92) If one factors in non-greenhouse influences such as El Nino events and large volcanic eruptions, lower atmosphere satellite-based temperature measurements show little, if any, global warming since 1979, a period over which atmospheric CO2 has increased by 55 ppm (17 per cent).
 
93) US President Barack Obama pledged to cut emissions by 2050 to equal those of 1910 when there were 92 million Americans. In 2050, there will be 420 million Americans, so Obama’s promise means that emissions per head will be approximately what they were in 1875. It simply will not happen.
 
94) The European Union has already agreed to cut emissions by 20 percent to 2020, compared with 1990 levels, and is willing to increase the target to 30 percent. However, these are unachievable and the EU has already massively failed with its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), as EU emissions actually rose by 0.8 percent from 2005 to 2006 and are known to be well above the Kyoto goal.
 
95) Australia has stated it wants to slash greenhouse emissions by up to 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020, but the pledges were so unpopular that the country’s Senate has voted against the carbon trading Bill, and the Opposition’s Party leader has now been ousted by a climate change sceptic.
 
96) Canada plans to reduce emissions by 20 percent compared with 2006 levels by 2020, representing approximately a 3 percent cut from 1990 levels but it simultaneously defends its Alberta tar sands emissions and its record as one of the world’s highest per-capita emissions setters.
 
97) India plans to reduce the ratio of emissions to production by 20-25 percent compared with 2005 levels by 2020, but all Government officials insist that since India has to grow for its development and poverty alleviation, it has to emit, because the economy is driven by carbon.
 
98) The Leipzig Declaration in 1996, was signed by 110 scientists who said: “We – along with many of our fellow citizens – are apprehensive about the climate treaty conference scheduled for Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997” and “based on all the evidence available to us, we cannot subscribe to the politically inspired world view that envisages climate catastrophes and calls for hasty actions.”
 
99) A US Oregon Petition Project stated “We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind. There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of CO2, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.”
 
100) A report by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change concluded “We find no support for the IPCC’s claim that climate observations during the twentieth century are either unprecedented or provide evidence of an anthropogenic effect on climate.”

Climate Justice Action spokesman to face charges, as Danish police prepare for mass protests at Copenhagen’s Bella centre. Disruption is declared only way.

A high-profile climate activist was arrested ahead of tomorrow’s major protests planned outside the Copenhagen climate summit, fuelling anxiety about how the Danish authorities are policing demonstrations.

Tadzio Mueller, a spokesman for the umbrella group Climate Justice Action (CJA), was arrested today by plainclothes police as he left the Bella centre, where the official climate talks are taking place. The police are holding him at the Retorvej detention centre, and he will be charged in court tomorrow morning. The police refused to say what charges will be brought.

The core of the CJA agenda is reparations of up to $45 trillion USD to be distributed to lesser developed countries for the demage done them by industrialized countries. Implicit is the creation of a new world order (government) to enforce this global redistribution of wealth,

Kevin Smith, an organiser for activist group Climate Camp, said: “It’s unbelievable that in a supposed democracy, undercover police are silencing spokespeople that are criticising the climate talks. How far are the Danish authorities prepared to go to stop tomorrow’s protest from going ahead?”

Mueller’s arrest comes on the eve of a Reclaim Power action that aims to “disrupt the sessions and open a space inside the UN area to hold a people’s assembly” from 10am tomorrow.

For several months, Mueller and other activists from CJA, which includes representatives of organizations from around the world including Via Campesina, Focus on the Global South and Climate Camp, have been planning the protest.

But their plan has now been modified and not all the demonstrators will attempt to enter the centre. The largest section of the demo is likely to be the “blue bloc” which has been granted permission to march by the police. It will gather at Tarnby Metro station, and walk from there to the north-east point of the fence around the Bella centre. It will be headed by the large groups from the southern hemisphere including Via Campesina and Focus on Global South among others. They will be accompanied by the “yellow bloc”, consisting of members of some of the NGOs who have been shut out of the Bella centre to make space for world leaders arriving this week.

From inside, a group of delegates - at least two countries have committed themselves - and some NGOs, will take part in a demonstration of solidarity. According to one organiser, who asked not to be named, there may be acts of civil disobedience. The inside groups hope to be able to come out and join the blue bloc, and hold a “people’s summit” inside, or near the perimeter of the centre.

Simultaneously, a “green bloc” and an “autonomous bloc”, consisting of various groups, will be coming at the Bella centre from unspecified points and attempting to scale the fence. These groups are reportedly committed to non-violent civil disobedience.

Ed Thompson, a spokesman for CJA, said: “This is potentially a truly historic action, bringing together activists from the north and south, in an attempt to make the voices of the most vulnerable groups who are being left out of these talks heard. We are not intimidated by the police. Every activist I know has come here to take non-violence direct action, and not a single one of them has said that he’s going to stay home.”

A spokesman for the Danish police said: “For the demonstration tomorrow we’re expecting large numbers. We have some information coming in but we will just be monitoring the situation as it carries on. We’re hoping, of course, for a peaceful demonstration, where people can exercise their right to demonstrate.”

Smith added: “The Danish government knows just how embarrassing it will be when hundreds of delegates walk out tomorrow to join us in the protest tomorrow against the climate talks, and it is trampling over all manner of civil liberties to try and prevent that from happening.”

Obama is supposed to attend as part of the conference’s finale and deliver another of his trademark teleprompter speeches to develgates.

As far a politics go, and the changes I’ve seen, there are many things I can’t quite get my mind wrapped around. For instance. If the Democratic led Congress wanted to truly address and handle the unemployment deficit, why wouldn’t they continue with what their fearless leader, President Obama, promulgated during his campaign? Like the $3000 tax credit for each new job created by small business. Or economic resolutions introduced by others: the other party, or individuals. Things such as reducing or eliminating the capital gains tax in order to bring additional investment into the country. Or a reduction or hiatus of the Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA or social security tax) that would immediately boost our economy and the job market. If one as low as myself on the food chain can see this working, why can’t our leaders?

Something else that befuddles me. What happened to all the hoopla over Bush going into Iraq? Shouldn’t it be transferred, transposed to Obama’s war in Afghanistan? Here you have an individual who campaigned on bringing our troops home and ending the war in the Middle East– I ask you, has that happened?

Obama doubled the troops in Afghanistan in March after being in office for only two months. Last week at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point he announced another 30,000 troops were being sent, increasing the force in Afghanistan by 50%. Now, on the Oprah Winfrey Show, he pats himself on the back for, “I think we’ve got the best possible plan for Afghanistan. We are on our way out of Iraq.”

Geez, is there a difference? What? We traded one fight for another. Is that better than Bush? To me, it sounds the same. Oh sure, there are different justifications, but let’s face it, Obama promised to get out and now he has changed his mind. Why?

Does anyone out there know we’ve had more military men and women killed in Afghanistan than we did in all of Iraq and Kuwait combined? Do you know that when the money given to the Pakistani government to control their military, which controls their nuclear weapons, is added in we’ve spent more in Afghanistan than we did Iraq? That includes feeding, housing and giving medical care to our troops in Iraq. That includes rebuilding the country. And it also includes all the bombs we used during “shock and awe”. There are also many other expenses not mentioned.

The point is, the change that everyone clamored about, was it worth it? Is there really a difference? Our country is poorer, more divided and marred in more world conflicts than we were before. Where does it end? When do we finally stand up and say no more? I say in 2010’s Congressional elections. But then again, I’m just a proletarian.

What would a pundit say? What would our esteemed President say? Well, on Sunday night President Obama gave himself a rating of B+ for his one year performance. He claimed to have made economical progress as well as international progress. I guess the latter means more people like us. They don’t want to help us, or work with us, but they like us. I’m so happy.

Obama said, “The biggest burden on me right now is that economic growth has happened, but job growth has not happened.” Duh!

Just where is the economic growth he’s referring to anyway? Housing? No. Financial markets? No. Industry? No. Transportation? No. Telecommunications? No. Could someone please explain to this poor plebe where it is?

I know a lot of small business owners: optometrists, chiropractors, dentists, orthodontists, contractors, construction company owners, et al. Nary a one is doing better. Most have cut staff and spending up to 50%. That includes myself. Banks still aren’t lending and if they were it wouldn’t matter. If the laid off employee doesn’t have money to spend, and I don’t mean borrowed money like the government, I have no one to sell my product to. So, why would I hire anyone?

There is a myriad of ways to increase the growth of private industry, hence, the growth of jobs. But unfortunately, the current Administration and the Democratic led Congress didn’t go to the same empirical school of pragmatism that the rest of us did. If one wants true change, I exhort you, go vote in 2010 and let the plutocrats know we mean business.

US Air Force spokesmen confirmed this week that the hitherto secret unmanned, high-altitude stealth jet, the so-called “Beast of Kandahar,” was present at the big US air base of Bagram, in Afghanistan. Photos of the Beast on the Bagram tarmac - outside its regular base at Kandahar near the Iranian and Pakistani borders - appeared in various Internet sites this week.

Designated RQ-170 Sentinel, it is the first jet drone ever developed for military use. France’s EURO Demonstrator is a similar project which will be ready for test flights only in another two years.

Little is known about the Sentinel, which was manufactured by Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Program. USAF spokesmen disclosed only that its new deployment responded to secretary of defense Robert Gates’ request for increased intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support for combatant commanders in Afghanistan.

According to DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources, Washington had a reason for letting the Beast surface at this time in the form of a published photograph and a note about its ability to fly over the borders of Iran, China, India and Pakistan for collecting “useful data about missile tests, telemetry, signals and multi-spectral intelligence. The disclosure came on the heels of Iran’s big air defense exercise for guarding its nuclear sites which ended in the third week of November; it appears to be a message to Tehran that all its war games, especially in intelligence and electronic warfare, were pointless since its skies are wide open to American drone activity against which Iran has no recourse.

Some of the Web sites, including the veteran Aviation Week, speculate about the Sentinel’s configuration and features from the published image, describing it as “a tailless flying wing design” with sensor pods built into the upper surface of each wing.

Its designation denotes an unarmed drone rather than the armed Predator UAV which has been used to fire missiles at terrorist sites on the Pakistan-Afghan border. But this assumption is open to question in view of the impression of “a deep, fat center-body” which could house a bomb or missile bay.

Furthermore, its is painted medium grey like the Predator or Reaper, rather than the dark gray or overall black that would provide better concealment at high altitudes.

Both these features suggest the mysterious Beast of Kandahar may have secret functions other than pure reconnaissance.

The first unmanned stealth craft on the seas, designated Protector SV or Death Shark, recently deployed in the Persian Gulf, is in high demand after its successful performance with the Singapore Navy. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that India and South Korea asked Israel’s Rafael to build craft to their specifications when chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi visited their capitals earlier this month.

Western military naval experts rate the Protector as one of the most effective military and intelligence craft afloat today, whose features can take over many of the capabilities of big high-cost warships with large crews.

They say the wonder boat can easily cruise off the shores of Lebanon, Syria and Iran undetected for long periods due to its tested stealth design.

Operated by remote control from a shore base, the crewless turbo diesel water-jet powered nine-meter (30 foot) long speedboat is armed with a Close-in Weapon System (CIWS) for detecting and destroying incoming anti-ship missiles and enemy aircraft at short range. This system is a Typhoon-type heavy MK-49 Mod 0 gyro stabilized 25 MM “machine gun” capable of laser accuracy up to a range of 50 kilometers (30 miles), which sticks to its target, whether on land, air or sea, even as the rigid-hull inflatable bounces on the waves at 40 knots (46 miles per hour)..

The Death Shark’s four cameras, functioning at the same distance and high definition as satellite cameras, can capture a license plate number from a distance of 26 kilometers (16 miles). The stealth craft is also equipped with a sonar and/or radar system and electro-optics which transmit a three-dimensional image to its shore base, instruments for jamming enemy electronics and weapons for taking on large warships, such as torpedoes, milliles and explosive charges.

India and South Korea are attracted by these unique features which make the Protector ideal for deployment on oceans, narrow waterways, rivers and ports. Among its other features, the craft is equipped for active interception of terrorist incursions by sea, like the one that held Mumbai to siege in Nov. 2008.

Reports from China say  the withdrawal and replacement of old North Korean currency and the release of redenominated bills beginning November 30 has triggered widespread confusion in the communist state.

The Daily NK, a South Korean-based newspaper with sources inside North Korea, reported from Changchun, China that the Ministry of People’s Security (MPS) was ordered to control residents. The State Security Department (SSD), Defense Security Command of the People’s Army and army bases were all placed on alert as a result of the currency issue.

According to the report, the exchange rate for old and new bills is 100 to1, and the ceiling for any given household was 100,000 of the old currency, or 1,000 Won in new denominations. On Sunday, December 13, 2009 one U. S. dollar was worth 135,000 Won

Any amount in excess of 100,000 Won cannot be traded in, making the savings of traders and middle-class workers valueless.

After the decree on the currency was issued, MPS and community guards began monitoring residents more closely and military bases were placed on alert to cope with possible unrest.

A 10 p.m. curfew was also imposed with a warning that offenders would be dealt with harshly.

One North Korean source was quoted as saying: “With 100,000 Won, we can now buy just half a kilogram of rice. Property we have sweated blood for has turned to nothing.”

North Korean rice prices have more than doubled since the government revalued the currency, a South Korean aid group said. One kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice cost 50 Won starting December 5, compared with 16 to 17 Won previously, said the Buddhist aid group Good Friends, which obtains information through contacts in North Korea.

One out of four school children were absent due to hunger, indicating how widespread the struggle to find food had become, the group said.

One couple in the their 60s committed suicide after the currency decree was issued, a source said, adding that State Security forces are “extremely tense and concerned about the situation expanding into civil unrest.”

Authorities also warned North Koreans not to damage old bills, reminding them that “spoiling money on which Great Leader’s portrait is printed is treated as treason.”

A source from Shinuiju said: “Loud sounds of weeping in every house have not ceased since the news was released. Weeping and fighting between couples has not stopped anywhere. The atmosphere of the city is terrible now.”

He added, “This currency reform is a horrifying trick. It is the first time people have cried on the streets since the Great Leader’s death,” referring to the death of Kim Il-Sung in 1994.

The latest signal of North Korea’s economic collapse could result in more willingness by its communist dictators to cooperate with the West but some fear it could turn into coveting its South Korean neighbor and even military conflict. It is tense.

Based on reports by East-Asia-Intel.com, December 11, 2009

The document, signed by Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi and his Syrian counterpart Ali Mohammad Habib Mahmoud, aimed to face “common enemies and challenges,” the report said.

Vahidi praised Syria’s great potential in defense and military fields and said that “it is natural for a country like Syria - which has an inhumane and menace predator like Israel in its neighborhood - to be always prepared [against possible foreign aggression].”

His visit to Syria comes a week after Saeed Jalili, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, also visited Damascus.

Iran’s treaty with Syria comes just as Western countries are warning Teheran that if it fails to respond to overtures intended to make its nuclear program transparent, it will face sanctions.

But as Iran was cementing its ties with Syria, the United States emphasized that its patience in waiting for a diplomatic response from Iran to its overtures is running thin.

In a Wall Street Journal interview published on Friday, White House National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones said that “Iran still controls its destiny on [the nuclear] issue.” The door to the diplomatic process would “stay open as long as we could leave it open … but it’s not going to stay open much longer.”

According to Jones, the parties involved in negotiations with Teheran wish most of all that Iran’s leaders would “give a clear statement of policy with regard to their future ambitions concerning the development of nuclear weapons and the delivery means to go with them.”

“As long as there’s an open question on both of those issues, then Iran is just asking the world to trust them,” he stated. “They think they can withstand anything the UN or the coalition of like-minded nations can put together. They might be right. They might be wrong.”

“If Iran pivots and does the right thing, whether it’s December 30 or January 20, that’s what everybody wants,” he concluded.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton questioned whether Iran had indeed any intention of coming clean on its nuclear program.

Speaking with Al Jazeera TV of the West’s offer of dialogue with Iran, Clinton said “[the Iranians] had first agreed in principle, and then I think because of internal disputes, they backed off from that, raising a lot of questions about what their true intentions are. Obviously, the secret facility at Qom was revealed. They now say they want 10 or 20 new nuclear power plants.”

“It’s not confidence building, let us say. And I think the international community really still wants to engage with Iran, but people are going to now turn to other routes like more pressure, like sanctions to try to change their mind and their behavior,” Clinton said.

Few believe any measure of sanctions will work because they will leak like a sieve, and will be unenforceable.

Iran publicly said last week it expects Israel to attack after Christmas when it expects Obama to admit his failures in the Middle East.

Today is the second straight day that Obama’s Approval Index rating has fallen to a new low. Prior to the past two days, the Approval Index had never fallen below -15 during Obama’s time in office

The 23% who Strongly Approve matches the lowest level of enthusiasm yet recorded. Just 41% of Democrats Strongly Approve while 69% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 21% Strongly Approve and 49% Strongly Disapprove.

Among those who consider the economy to be the most important issue, just 26% Strongly Approve of the President’s performance while 39% Strongly Disapprove.

Among those who consider fiscal policy issues the most important, just 1% Strongly Approve and 81% Strongly Disapprove.

The President’s Approval Index rating is -2 among voters under 30 and -29 among senior citizens. From an income perspective, the President’s ratings are weakest among those who earn $40,000 to $100,000 annually.

Overall, only 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. Fifty-three percent (53%) disapprove.

On the eve of Hanukkah celebrating Judah Maccabees defeat of Syria 2,000 years ago Tehran said it expects an Israeli attack within a month and expects Syrian help. According to Iranian intelligence, Jerusalem will take its green light from Obama’s forced admission after Christmas that his Iranian policy of talk and sanctions has failed in the face of Tehran’s rejection of the international proposal to send its enriched uranium for overseas processing.

“The countdown for war is coming close to its end,” said Iranian General Vahidi to the Syrian-Iranian joint defense committee. “And we must get our strategic partnership in shape ahead of time.”

The leitmotif of the Iranian defense secretary’s talks in Damascus was the fate Iran and Syria share and their strategic partnership as the only safeguards against what he called “‘American-backed Zionist aggression.” Syria must commit itself to joint military action against Israel, because “stronger defense ties between Iran and Syria are elements of deterrence in confronting the Zionist regime’s threats to the countries of the region.”

For the first, time, Gen. Vahidi openly threatened to respond to a possible Israel attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities by striking Israel’s “chemical, microbiological and banned nuclear weapons” production sites.

His message brought forth a tepid Syrian response: The Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Syrian Secretary of Defense Ali Habib as commenting early Thursday, December 10, that an attack on Iran by any party would be deemed an attack on Syria and draw commensurate retaliation.

Military sources point out that comment did not satisfy Tehran because it is short of clear language pledging specific military action. Iranian officials mean to stay in Damascus and keep up the pressure until they elicit a firm, binding Syrian commitment to strike Israel on its ally’s behalf if Iran comes under attack.

Gen. Vahidi arrived in Damascus Tuesday aboard a special Iranian military aircraft. It carried the largest Iranian military delegation ever seen in the Syrian capital, representing every branch of Iran’s armed forces, Revolutionary Guards Corps and intelligence.

Preparations for coordinated retaliation for a potential Israeli attack also brought a top Hizballah delegation incoming from Lebanon to Damascus Tuesday night, Dec. 8, headed by its secretary general Hassan Nasrallah.

When they met, Syrian and Iranian military officials proposed that Hizballah and the Palestinian terrorist organizations start heating up Israel’s borders in the coming days to draw the attention from the world’s focus on the Iranian and Syrian nuclear programs.

Washington sources report that the Obama was about to launch a diplomatic and PR campaign against Syria’s covert military nuclear program based on the “smoking gun” of traces of highly processed plutonium found by UN inspectors at the bombed Syrian-North Korean facility at Dir a-Zur. The campaign will focus on this finding as evidence of Iran’s covert nuclear activities and proliferation activities.

Obama refusal to arm Israel with the sophisticated F-22 or F-35 warplanes is a concern and wil likely mean more Israeli casualties, and maybe less damage to Iranian facilities. The key question is will Russia and China step up their military equipment support for Iran and thence Syria. Further, what will Hezbollah do – it has been arming to the teeth in Lebanon. And specifically how effective will its almost certain attacks on Israel be and will that involve Israel’s invasions of Lebanon and / or Gaza?