Friday, November 24, 2006

Buy Nothing Day!

Escape Black Friday! Buy Nothing Day is here!

Forget crass PR stunts that reinforce the critical ideal of consumption in post-industrial, neoliberal societies!

Think! Resist! Don't just shop like automatonic lemmings rushing off the cliffs of the next fashionable trends brought to you by another capitalistically co-opted bank holiday! Don't be a slave to your manufactued desires! Remember Aldous Huxley! Remember Neil Postman!

Come, shoppers of the world...you have nothing to lose but your high interest credit card debts (and invisible chains)! Chop chop, not shop shop!

Tis the season for reason...Give it a try...Check out Adbusters for more or Naomi Klein's No Logo site on standing up to the brand bullies!

Let's go! Say Know to the Brave New World Disorder...

Friday, November 17, 2006

The Fog has been Lifted...

"To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge it, requires brains." - Mary Pettibone Poole

Well, at least it was a start...and only the third science based conference on 9/11 in five years.

The Lifting the Fog conference at UC Berkeley on Novemeber 11th was quite a success! We had a packed house most of the day. Thanks to all that attended and made the event possible!

You can find full audio/video of the event here.

Cheers to all those that think science and the facts still matter, especially about 9/11.

More to come...polished DVD's of the event will be available within a couple months. Stay tuned...

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Lifting the Fog

The Scientific Method Applied to the World Trade Center Disaster

Welcome! The Lifting the Fog conference is here!

Summary
WHAT: An academic conferece, open to the public, using principles of scientific inquiry to examine the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001 and the environmental fallout at Ground Zero

WHEN: November 11, 2006; 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM (Four sessions, free and open to the public!)

WHERE: Chan Shun Auditorium, Valley Life Science Building, University of California at Berkeley


The past year has seen a rapid expansion of interest in alternatives to the official story of the 9/11 attack in both popular culture and professional and academic circles. Unfortunately, media coverage of this phenomenon has highlighted speculative claims, focused on personalities, and has generally attempted to discredit challenges to the Official Story.

The Lifting the Fog Conference will provide a focused, principled, and rigorous examination of the many unanswered questions surrounding the destruction of the World Trade Center skyscrapers. Using the extensive bodies of surviving evidence that document these events, Conference presenters will apply the time-tested scientific method to evaluate the evidence and theories of the destruction of the buildings.

In addition to tackling the controversial questions of what brought the skyscrapers down, the Conference will provide a session devoted to the developing story of the public health catastrophe of exposures to the Ground Zero environment. The fact that the EPA allowed politics to eclipse science in their issuance of false assurances that the air was safe to breathe is a sobering example of the fallacy of trusting official conclusions regarding highly charged political events being used to justify wars.

The Conference format will feature presenters who are well qualified in pertinent scientific and engineering issues, making visually enhanced presentations of about 60-70 minutes. Each presentation will be followed by a moderated session inviting audience participation.

Materials available inside the conference will be limited to books, articles, pamplets, and multimedia recordings such as DVDs and CDs which feature conference participants and are approved by the Steering Committee.


What a Program!

SESSION 1 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ground Zero Exposures and Health Impacts
What were the conditions in and around Ground Zero following the attack, and how did officials respond?

Presenters: Nate Mudd, Jenna Orkin, Janette MacKinlay
Respondent: Mickey S. Huff

SESSION 2 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Analysis of the World Trade Center Destruction
What can be learned from analysis of the physical features of the total destruction of the World Trade Center Twin Towers and Building 7? Are there natural processes that could explain these features?

Presenters: Steven Jones
Respondent: TBA

SESSION 3 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Critique of Official Collapse Theories of the Twin Towers
What are the official collapse theories? Can they account for the total collapses and for specific features documented by physical evidence? How scientific were the investigations that produced these theories?

Presenters: Jim Hoffman, Kevin Ryan (video excerpts only)
Respondent: TBA

SESSION 4 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Highlights and Panel Discussion:
What conclusions can be made about the destruction of the World Trade Center using science, and what are the implications?

Presenters: Steven Jones, Jim Hoffman, Paul Rea, Jenna Orkin, Janette MaKinlay
Respondent: Peter Phillips

Come one come all! Fun for the whole family! Not to be missed! Check the website for details.

For more information on the topic:

**See more 9/11 research from Jim Hoffman and others here.

**See articles pertaining to the science presented at the conference from Steven Jones here.

**See Jenna Orkin's work here.

**And, see Peter Phillips' piece on the Global Dominance Group here.

Hope to see you there!