HAARP: A Research Or A Camouflage?

beforeitsnews.com

      It’s been almost three months since the destructive Yolanda (Typhoon Haiyan) devastated the Visayas Region. Many would have thought that such angering natural disaster would have been an act of God or could be a product of man’s hands. As much as the noises of help for the Philippines sounded, the issue of Typhoon Yolanda being manipulated has also reached the public’s ears. Some would claim that this kind of storm, and a number of much destructive disasters, were allegedly created by a project called H.A.A.R.P.

What is H.A.A.R.P.?

Panoramic Photo of the High-frequency Array (Source: haarp.alaska.edu)

       According to its official website, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) operates a major ionospheric research facility at Gakona, Alaska.  HAARP facility was intently situated in Alaska because arctic ionosphere strongly affects high latitude telecommunication systems.

      The aim of the research, which started in 1999, is to explore and understand natural phenomena occurring in the Earth's ionosphere and near-Earth space environment. It is claimed to be significant for applications in communication and navigation system. Ionosphere is the delicate upper layer of our atmosphere ranging from about 30 miles (50 km) to 600 miles (1,000 km) above the Earth's surface. Dr. Bernard Eastlund is the scientist who is most linked with the creation of the HAARP project. For more details about Dr. Eastlund's creation, click here.

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A Look on the Negative Side

         Although its aim is to enhance life, HAARP still don't pass the eyes of many scientists who state that purposefully disturbing this sensitive layer could have major and even disastrous consequences. Based on the findings of Dr. Michel Chossudovsky of the University of Ottawa and Alaska's Dr. Nick Begich, these disturbances can even be used to create earthquakes, affect hurricanes, and manipulate weather. (Burks, 2013)

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     Despite being academic in nature, HAARP's political side is much being questioned. Many scientists claim that this is a possible warfare weapon because of its aim to enhance communications and surveillance systems. On 1987, a patent issued to Dr. Eastlund contradicts the claim that HAARP is exclusively for research only and not for any other purposes.(Burks, 2013)

HAARP Documentaries

Documentaries have also been made regarding the inner workings of HAARP: one is a 15-minute documentary by Canada's public broadcasting network CBC and the other by the History Channel.(Burks, 2013)

Sources:

High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program n.d. Retrieved from From the Wilderness: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/pandora/haarp.html

An Overview of the HAARP Program n.d. Retrieved from Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20130414134259/http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/gen1.html

Burks, Fred (2013, July 23). HAARP: Secret Weapon Used For Weather Modification, Electromagnetic Warfare. Retrieved from Global Research: http://www.globalresearch.ca/haarp-secret-weapon-used-for-weather-modification-electromagnetic-warfare/20407

Sweetie: A Virtual Filipina Child Exposes Sexual Predators

(credits to @JerryRobalino)

Along with the development of technology and the increasing use of the internet comes the increased risk of safety and abuse. In developing countries, many families find the convenience of using the internet as a source of income; and it is a sad fact that people abuse this privilege. One of the issues today is the increasing number of children who are victimized by child prostitution. According to UNICEF Philippines , children in developing countries are “made more vulnerable to this modern day form of slavery” (Lopez, 2013). Today, thousands of young Filipinas are victimized by a new form of child slavery and exploitation webcam child sex tourism. (Lopez, 2013)

    

globalnewsupdate.com

          In response to this, Terres de Hommes, a Dutch child- activist organization, along with Avaaz.org created “Sweetie” a computer- generated image of a ten- year- old girl from the Philippines in order to lure and identify pedophiles online who engage in cyber-sex.  According to Terre des Hommes, webcam child sex tourism takes place on a large scale in the Philippines, as well as other Southeast Asian countries because of the increased access of the internet, as well as the well-developed criminal infrastructure around child sexual exploitation and human trafficking (Terres de Hommes, n.d.).

     

     globalnewsupdate.com

           In an warehouse in Amsterdam, Terres de Hommes researchers operated a chatroom, and with the use of a software, was able to control Sweetie’s conversation, facial expressions, and movements. While the predators were chatting with the cyber image, Terres des Hommmes tracked down potential “customers” using the information that they provided such as social media profiles, phone numbers, pictures, and video footage. Over 20, 000 people have tried to make approaches and Sweetie, and through basic research techniques (not hacking) they were able to identify 1,000 adults from over 71 countries who offered to pay Sweetie to perform sexual acts over the webcam. (Quigley, 2013)

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            Albert Jaap Van Santbrink. Terres des Hommes’ director, reiterated that they were able to identify a thousand predators over just two and a half months, and wanted to express that if the government were to make a more active approach, much more people would be identified. In a statement he said that "The pertrators think they are invisible, but we proved that they are anything but." (Quigley, 2013).

Terre des Hommes and Avaaz.org has started an online petition to pressure governments into adopting a more active role in policies that investigate crimes against webcam child sex tourism.

The petition can be signed at www.youtube.com/sweetie

Terres de Hommes: http://www.terredeshommes.org/

Works Cited

Lopez, R. (2013, November 5). Virtual Filipina kid lures 1,000 ‘sexual predators’ worldwide. Retrieved from Manila Bulletin: http://www.mb.com.ph/virtual-filipina-kid-lures-1000-sexual-predators-worldwide/
Quigley, J. (2013, November 6). Virtual 10-Year-Old Filipina Reveals Thousands of Cybersex Predators. Retrieved from The Diplomat: http://thediplomat.com/2013/11/virtual-10-year-old-filipina-reveals-thousands-of-cyber-predators/
Terres de Hommes. (n.d.). WCST AS A PHENOMENON. Retrieved from Terres de Hommes: https://d3hbxfkt92wlh4.cloudfront.net/inc/FAQ_EN.pdf

KAPEKONOMIYA: Probing the UP Land Use

    Last January 10, 2014 at around four in the afternoon, students gathered at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, School of Economics Auditorium for the KAPEKONOMIYA: Probing the UP Land Use Forum. For a rich discussion regarding the use and the development of UP’s land, everyone gained a lot from the invited speakers, namely:  Prof. Ruperto Alonzo, the former Vice President for Development in the UP System, and Prof. Judy Taguiwalo, professor in the College of Social Work and Community Development.

    The forum was indeed a very informative one. The speakers did not fail to provide facts and impart their knowledge on the specific issue of the UP land use. There were statistics shown to serve as sufficient evidence for the speakers’ claims. It is quite interesting to hear lots of different opinions about the use of our land. There could be no question about us having lots of properties, but an unanswered question could be, “Are we putting them into good use?” One could say that it is a duty of a UP student to make oneself aware of the issues of the UP system, and make a stand on them.

       There are uses of the land that have quite been helpful to the UP population, such as having new dormitories and school buildings. However, the rising issue of privatization has been dwelled upon during the forum. For example, there has been an aim of increasing the resource generation zone while planning for our land use, and it is said that a huge part of this zone would be allotted to the field of science and technology. Like what the speakers said, how could UP Ayala Technohub and the UP Town Centre possibly be used for science, technology, and academic purposes, wherein it just obviously paves a way for commercialization to take place?  According to Prof. Judy Taguiwalo, this privatization leads to an erosion of the public character of UP. “Edukasyon, hindi negosyo.” When it was said that such assets would be built on idle areas, how can one consider UPIS an idle area? As members of the UP community, can we really choose privatization over education?

      I understand that such land usage may contribute to economic returns as forms of assets, but does the money that we generate from these so-called assets fair enough to continue privatizing our properties, even with those still being used for educational purposes over the years? It is said that UP only generates approximately 20% of its budget from leasing its assets like UP Town Centre and Technohub, while the rest or the 80% comes from government subsidy and tuition fees. It seemed that we do not get a lot of our budget from these commercial assets, and this is confirmed by our need for continual increase of tuition fees. Truthfully, it may have been better if more school buildings such as laboratories were made, not merely malls or lots of food establishments. In this manner, the aim of using land for scientific and academic purposes would be more clearly achieved.

  

The UPD Land Use Plan

Approved by the 

UP Board of Regents 

on 23 June 1994 

(Area: 493 hectares) 

Source: 

Office of the Campus      

Architect

     Quoting Prof. Taguiwalo, “The University of the Philippines is a public university, not a private enterprise.” We are here to serve the people with education and knowledge. Thus, we must also keep in mind our values of education, honor, and excellence, and live up to these standards that we have had for years. Privatization and commercialization in our land are now evident. Yet, we must not let these get in the way of our endeavour as one UP community to serve the Filipino people, while striving for proper use of our land and properties geared towards better education.

Three Dimensional Mid-Air Acoustic Manipulations

The video shows different low density and small objects suspended and moving in mid-air. Researchers from the University of Tokyo were the one responsible for this latest work. Using the concept of sound waves, they were able to levitate and control the movement of the particles. Although the concept of making objects levitate using acoustics is not new, making them suspended and move in three dimensions in mid-air is the new thing here.

They were able to do the three dimensional movements by arranging the four speakers facing each other and creating an ultrasonic focal point on arbitrary point in space. This focal point can move in space by adjusting the output of the speakers and the particle trapped inside this focal point moves along with it. The presence of the standing waves coming from the speakers produces suspending force that allows the particles trapped inside the nodes of these standing waves to levitate and move in mid-air.

             












            This latest work from the researchers of University of Tokyo has a lot of potential in different fields of science and technology. A good example is the application of this technology to the transportation industry like building a hover-board or even a flying car.