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--- Begin Message ----Caveat Lector-Please send as far and wide as possible. Thanks, Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com Outraged Greeks say Alexander was not bisexual ATHENS, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A group of Greek lawyers are threatening to sue Warner Bros film studios and Oliver Stone, director of the widely anticipated film "Alexander," for suggesting Alexander the Great was bisexual. The lawyers have already sent an extrajudicial note to the studio and director demanding they include a reference in the title credits saying his movie is a fictional tale and not based on official documents of the life of the Macedonian ruler. "We are not saying that we are against gays but we are saying that the production company should make it clear to the audience that this film is pure fiction and not a true depiction of the life of Alexander," Yannis Varnakos, who spearheads the campaign by 25 lawyers, told Reuters on Friday. Stone was quoted on the MSNBC.com Web Site as telling the upcoming edition of Playboy magazine that the film's depiction of Alexander could offend some. "We go into his bisexuality. It may offend some people, but sexuality in those days was a different thing," he was quoted as saying. While the film starring Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie will be released on Nov. 24, Varnakos said he has already gathered enough information regarding the content of the movie to suggest there are "inappropriate references." "We have not seen the film but from the information we have already there are references to his alleged homosexuality, a fact that is in no historical document or archive on Alexander," he said. "Either they make it clear that this is a work of fiction or we will take the case further." This is not the first time Greeks have been angered by suggestions Alexander was homosexual and had affairs with young men. Two years ago hundreds of northern Greeks from the province of Macedonia, where he was born, stormed an archaeological symposium after one speaker presented a paper on the homosexuality of Alexander. Police were called in to evacuate the participants. One of the greatest military leaders of all time, Alexander, who was never defeated in battle, conquered about 90 percent of the then- known world before his mysterious death at the age of 32, building an empire that stretched from the Mediterranean to Afghanistan. Varnakaos said as Stone has the right to freely express himself, the audience should have the right to know. "We cannot come out and say that (former U.S.) President John F. Kennedy was a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and so Warner cannot come out and say Alexander was gay," Varnakos said. ***** American Claims Discovery of Atlantis Sun Nov 14, 2004 By ALEX EFTY, Associated Press Writer LIMASSOL, Cyprus - An American researcher claimed Sunday to have discovered the remains of the legendary lost city of Atlantis on the bottom of the east Mediterranean Sea, but Cyprus' chief government archaeologist was skeptical. Robert Sarmast said sonar scanning 50 miles southeast of Cyprus revealed man-made walls, one as long as 2 miles, and trenches at a depth of 1,640 yards. "It is a miracle we found these walls as their location and lengths match exactly the description of the acropolis of Atlantis provided by Plato in his writings," Sarmast said, referring to the ancient Greek philosopher. The chief government archaeologist of Cyprus, Pavlos Flourentzos, reacted with skepticism, telling The Associated Press: "More proof is necessary." Sarmast, 38, is an architect by training from Los Angeles. He has devoted the past 2 1/2 years to trying to locate the lost city described by Plato in his dialogues, the Timaeous and the Critias. He spoke to reporters on the "Flying Enterprise," his expeditionary ship, after six days of taking highly sophisticated "side scan" sonars of the seabed. He said he had chosen the area from data provided by two earlier sonar scans of the east Mediterranean by Russian and French expeditions. His own expedition used more sophisticated equipment, he said. "We found more than 60-70 points that are a perfect match with Plato's detailed description of the general layout of the acropolis hill of Atlantis. The match of the dimensions and the coordinates provided by our sonar with Plato's description are so accurate that, if this is not indeed the acropolis of Atlantis, then this is the world's greatest coincidence," he said. Tests of that part of the seabed showed it had once been above sea level, he said. "We cannot yet provide tangible proof in the form of bricks and mortar as the artifacts are still buried under several meters of sediment at a depth of 1,500 meters (1,640 yards), but the evidence is now irrefutable," he added. Asked if the ruins could not be that of another city that sank beneath the waves, Sarmast said the remains match Plato's description of Atlantis so closely that they could not be anything else. "If you compare it with Plato, you will be astonished," he said. "We hope that future expeditions will be able to uncover the sediment and bring back physical proof." Plato wrote of Atlantis as an island in the western sea, which has been widely interpreted to mean the Atlantic Ocean. An earthquake undermined the island and it was submerged. But societies dedicated to finding Atlantis remain. For its time, Atlantis was a highly civilized nation and in legend it has become associated with utopia. The English philosopher Francis Bacon called his 1627 book on the ideal state The New Atlantis. Chief government archaeologist Flourentzos said it was possible that Atlantis was near Cyprus. "The myth of Atlantis has been around for ages and it is generally believed that, if it ever existed, it was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean - hence its name. But ancient cities and civilizations in the Mediterranean region, such as the Minoan civilization of Crete, have disappeared as a result of major volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. For all we know, Atlantis may well have existed in our region." Sarmast said his expedition had cost about a $250,000. The funds came from public donations to his US-based company "First Source Enterprise," which is devoted to the project, sales of his book "The Discovery of Atlantis," and the Cypriot Tourist Organization, which donated $60,000. He said the book, published in September 2003, said Atlantis was in the east Mediterranean and his latest sonars confirmed it. ***** New C.I.A. Chief Tells Workers to Back Administration Policies By Douglas Jehl The New York Times Wednesday 17 November 2004 WASHINGTON - Porter J. Goss, the new intelligence chief, has told Central Intelligence Agency employees that their job is to "support the administration and its policies in our work," a copy of an internal memorandum shows. "As agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies," Mr. Goss said in the memorandum, which was circulated late on Monday. He said in the document that he was seeking "to clarify beyond doubt the rules of the road." While his words could be construed as urging analysts to conform with administration policies, Mr. Goss also wrote, "We provide the intelligence as we see it - and let the facts alone speak to the policymaker." The memorandum suggested an effort by Mr. Goss to spell out his thinking as he embarked on what he made clear would be a major overhaul at the agency, with further changes to come. The changes to date, including the ouster of the agency's clandestine service chief, have left current and former intelligence officials angry and unnerved. Some have been outspoken, including those who said Tuesday that they regarded Mr. Goss's warning as part of an effort to suppress dissent within the organization. In recent weeks, White House officials have complained that some C.I.A. officials have sought to undermine President Bush and his policies. At a minimum, Mr. Goss's memorandum appeared to be a swipe against an agency decision under George J. Tenet, his predecessor as director of central intelligence, to permit a senior analyst at the agency, Michael Scheuer, to write a book and grant interviews that were critical of the Bush administration's policies on terrorism. One former intelligence official said he saw nothing inappropriate in Mr. Goss's warning, noting that the C.I.A. had long tried to distance itself and its employees from policy matters. "Mike exploited a seam in the rules and inappropriately used it to express his own policy views," the official said of Mr. Scheuer. "That did serious damage to the agency, because many people, including some in the White House, thought that he was being urged by the agency to take on the president. I know that was not the case." But a second former intelligence official said he was concerned that the memorandum and the changes represented an effort by Mr. Goss to stifle independence. "If Goss is asking people to color their views and be a team player, that's not what people at C.I.A. signed up for," said the former intelligence official. The official and others interviewed in recent days spoke on condition that they not be named, saying they did not want to inflame tensions at the agency. Some of the contents of Mr. Goss's memorandum were first reported by The Washington Post. A complete copy of the document was obtained on Tuesday by The New York Times. Tensions between the agency's new leadership team, which took over in late September, and senior career officials are more intense than at any time since the late 1970's. The most significant changes so far have been the resignations on Monday of Stephen R. Kappes, the deputy director of operations, and his deputy, Michael Sulick, but Mr. Goss told agency employees in the memorandum that he planned further changes "in the days and weeks ahead of us" that would involve "procedures, organization, senior personnel and areas of focus for our action." "I am committed to sharing these changes with you as they occur," Mr. Goss said in the memorandum. "I do understand it is easy to be distracted by both the nature and the pace of change. I am confident, however, that you will remain deeply committed to our mission." Mr. Goss's memorandum included a reminder that C.I.A. employees should "scrupulously honor our secrecy oath" by allowing the agency's public affairs office and its Congressional relations branch to take the lead in all contacts with the media and with Congress. "We remain a secret organization," he said. Among the moves that Mr. Goss said he was weighing was the selection of a candidate to become the agency's No. 2 official, the deputy director of central intelligence. The name being mentioned most often within the C.I.A. as a candidate, intelligence officials said, is Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden of the Air Force, the director of the National Security Agency, which is responsible for intercepting electronic communications worldwide. The naming of a deputy director would be made by the White House, in a nomination subject to Senate confirmation. In interviews this week, members of Congress as well as current and former intelligence officials said one reason the overhaul under way had left them unnerved was that Mr. Goss had not made clear what kind of agency he intended to put in place. But Mr. Goss's memorandum did little to spell out that vision, and it did not make clear why the focus of overhaul efforts to date appeared to be on the operations directorate, which carries out spying and other covert missions around the world. "It's just very hard to divine what's going on over there," said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who said he and other members of the Senate intelligence committee would be seeking answers at closed sessions this week. "But on issue after issue, there's a real question about whether the country and the Congress are going to get an unvarnished picture of our intelligence situation at a critical time." Mr. Goss said in the memorandum that he recognized that intelligence officers were operating in an atmosphere of extraordinary pressures, after a series of reports critical of intelligence agencies' performance in the months leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq. "The I.C. and its people have been relentlessly scrutinized and criticized," he said, using an abbreviation for intelligence community. "Intelligence-related issues have become the fodder of partisan food fights and turf-power skirmishes. All the while, the demand for our services and products against a ruthless and unconventional enemy has expanded geometrically and we are expected to deliver - instantly. We have reason to be proud of our achievements and we need to be smarter about how we do our work in this operational climate." ***** Brazil To Decriminalize Drug Use On November 24 President Lula To Sign Drug Decriminalization Decree >From Alberto M. Giordano [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11-17-4 Weeks after some punishing setbacks for the government of Brazilian President Lula da Silva, with his Worker's Party losing three of the flagship cities in the world for Harm Reduction policies toward drug users (S�o Paulo, Porto Alegre, and Curitiba), the Lula administration has finally decided to make the groundbreaking local policies go national. According to a report in today's Folha de S�o Paulo (subscription only), Lula's government of has reached a "consensus" to step forward into a bold new era of drug policy: decriminalizing the drug user nationwide, and opening 250 safe drug use centers across the country during the year 2005. Lula is expected to sign an executive decree on November 24, taking drug enforcement responsibilities away from police agencies, and placing the problems of drug use under the jurisdiction of the Health Ministry, which will be charged with supporting the safe drug-use centers and make Harm Reduction - a policy to reduce the harms associated with drug use - the law of the land. Here is an excerpt from today's report from Brazil's largest daily newspaper: "Policy proposal considers drug consumption as a public health problem, and no longer one for the police. The government wants to create centers for drug use." "By Luciana Constantino and Luri Dantas Folha de S�o Paulo - Bras�lia Bureau "After a series of internal disagreements about drug policy, the federal government is preparing a realignment of national policy to define drug consumption as a public health problem, and not one for the police as it is today. "There will be a presidential order creating rules for treating drug dependents, with emphasis on Harm Reduction..." To read more of the translation, and comment on this exciting new development, head toward The Narcosphere: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/11/15/94326/676 >From somewhere in a country called Am�rica, Al Giordano Publisher The Narco News Bulletin http://www.narconews.com/ new email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***** Baby We Were Born To Run By Roger Highfield The Telegraph - UK 11-18-4 Joggers are not just keeping fit but demonstrating a fundamentally human attribute that distinguishes us from monkeys, apes and our more primitive ancestors; as Bruce Springsteen wisely put it, we were born to run. Humans evolved big buttocks, a balanced head and other anatomical features because our early relatives needed to run long distances - perhaps to hunt animals or scavenge carcasses on Africa's vast savannah. Because survival depended heavily on endurance running, this exerted a major influence on the way our bodies are shaped: a theory that overturns textbook accounts which argue that running was a by-product of walking upright. The idea of marathon man is outlined today in the journal Nature by Prof Dennis Bramble, a biologist at University of Utah, and Prof Daniel Lieberman, an anthropologist at Harvard University. "Running has substantially shaped human evolution," said Prof Bramble. "Running made us human - at least in an anatomical sense." Instead of declaring "I think therefore I am", the new theory suggests that the philosopher Rene Descartes would have been more accurate to say: "I run, therefore, I am." Prof Bramble said: "We think running is one of the most transforming events in human history. The emergence of humans is tied to the evolution of running." Prof Lieberman added: "Millions who love to jog know that it feels great. What we have shown is why. "Jogging feels great because we have all kinds of specialisations in our body that help us run." The team argues that our genus, Homo, evolved from a more ape-like human ancestor, Australopithecus, two million or more years ago because natural selection favoured the survival of Australopithecines that could run and, over time, favoured anatomical features that made long-distance running easier. Bipedalism evolved in the ape-like Australopithecus at least 4.5 million years ago but it walked for up to three million years, without ever looking like a human, so the team argues that walking was not enough to shape the hominid body. "Walking won't do that but running will," said Prof Bramble. The pair examined 26 human body features - many also seen in fossils of Homo erectus and some in Homo habilis - that enhanced the ability to run and found that only some were needed for walking. Traits that aided running included leg and foot tendons and ligaments that acted like springs, shoulders that rotated independently of the head and neck to allow better balance, and skeletal and muscle features that made the human body stronger, more stable and able to run more efficiently without overheating. "The gluteus maximus plays little role in walking, but during a run our body is in a constant fall and the contractions of the gluteus maximus help us from falling down," said Prof Lieberman. This collection of seemingly random physiological traits arose millions of years ago, at the evolutionary split of chimpanzees and Homo erectus, to make humans unusually strong endurance runners. The researchers do not know why natural selection favoured joggers. Perhaps endurance running evolved so human ancestors could pursue prey before the development of weapons. Perhaps early humans and their immediate ancestors ran to scavenge carcasses - maybe so they could beat scavengers to dinner. 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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ <A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
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