Nexus - 0203 - New Times Magazine-pages

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ANOTHER ASTEROID "NEAR MISS" While most of us were watch- ing the middle-east missiles dur- ing January, another missile in the form of an asteroid became the closed "near-miss" of any aster- oid yet observed. Although only 5 to 10 metres across, this little bullet from beyond, had it hit the Earth, would have made a crater nearly 1km across and 30 metres deep. It would have hit the Earth at approx 20 km per second. (ie 76,000 km per hour) Now known as 1991 BA, the asteroid, previously unknown, missed us by only 170,000km, which is less than half the distance from Earth to the Moon. Source: - Syd Morning Herald, 25/1/91. CANCER RISKS & POWER LINES According to a report commissioned by the Victorian Health Dept., high voltage electromagnetic fields more than doubled the risk of childhood cancers. The report was based on epidemiologi- cal studies of frequencies in the range of 50-60Hz. Based on three studies, the report con- cluded "This showed prima facie evidence that a residential exposure to power line frequency magnetic fields of at least 3mG is associated with an elevated risk of child- hood cancer." Source: The Age MYSTERIOUS NEW STRUCTURE FOUND IN SPACE Astronomers have discovered an immense collection of galaxies, describing them as the biggest structure ever seen in the universe. The structure, which they call the "Great Wall", is so difficult to explain that it rais- es new questions about theories of the ori- gin and structure of the universe. The galaxies that make up the Great Wall form a 'sheet' that is at least 500 mil- lion light years long, 200 million light years wide and 15 million light years thick. NEXUS - 10 "a pre-dawn vertical insertion of troops". In Vietnam, you didn't kill the enemy, you "serviced the tar- get", "neutralised" somebody, or even better "de-humanised the enemy". My favourite piece of "double- speak" occurred in ‘47, when the US Govt changed the name of the Dept of War, to the Dept of Defence. CARBON 14 TESTS OUT OF DATE The popular method of dating ancient artifacts, particularly organic matter is the Carbon 14 dating method. According to the Jan 1991 issue of "Diggings", a monthly archeologi- cal journal published in Sydney, "some snail shell from antiquity were crushed and tested and found to be 37,000 years old. But in another test, the shells of some living snails were tested by the same method, and these also were found to be 37,000 years old." Also, according to a report in New Scientist, the carbon dating of the Turin Shroud may have been inaccurate. The results of trials at 38 laboratories around the world which dated artifacts of known age were compared by Britain's Science & Energy Research Council (SERC). They revealed that the margin of error may be 2 to 3 times greater than at present accepted. Worse still, the accuracy of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), the method used to date the Turin Shroud, came out of the survey badly and was "way out" when dating samples of less than 200 years old. Source: New Scientist, 30/9/1989. The Great Wall was discovered by Margaret Geller and John Huchra of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astro- physics in Cambridge in a detailed three- dimensional map they have been compiling of a section of the heavens. The structure is so big that it appears to run off the edges of the map. The researchers reported their discovery in a November issue of "Science". HAWKESBURY NEPEAN RIVER FACES DEATH Sounds dramatic, but Sydney-siders be warned! The Managing Director of the Water Board, Mr Bob Wilson told a chem- icals summit at Penrith last month, that the water quality of the Nepean-Hawkesbury system, which is Sydney's major source of drinking supplies, was deteriorating so rapidly that without remedial action, the river would die. Source: Syd Morn Herald - 12/2/91 ELECTRIC CURRENT DISCOVERED BENEATH AUSTRALIA! "DOUBLE-SPEAK'’ OR PROPAGANDA? A 6,000km long "loop" described as the world's longest electrical current has been discovered beneath Australia. The "loop" stretches from Broome in WA down towards SA, up through western Qld, and out the Gulf. The Australian current flows about 15km below the surface, sometimes deep- er, with a width of about 50 to 200km. A second current branches off the main one, just below Birdsville, and flows down into the Spencer Gulf. It seems that every time the US goes to war it has to invent a new language to smooth over the truth. This time it was the phrase "collateral damage" that made a lot of people feel a little queasy at hearing innocent human life described so callously. It may interest some to learn that in pre- vious "armed conflicts" or wars, several other descriptions were employed. For example, the US invasion of Granada was YEAR BOOK - MAY/JUNE 1991