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In the past dozen years or so a major controversy has developed through out the world about changes that are supposedly taking place with the earth’s climate. There is a large body of opinion that believes the earth’s temperature is getting warmer due to the increase in greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), caused by the burning of fossil fuels and increasing industrial activity, and unless governments take action to remedy the situation then mankind is in serious trouble.

This theory is not believed by everyone. Indeed there are many eminent scientists who have said that the theory has no credibility as the evidence presented by its supporters is inconclusive. So there are two schools of thought on this matter, each adamant that they’re right:

1) Those who believe implicitly that global warming is taking place and that man is entirely responsible by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide ( a ‘greenhouse’ gas) in the atmosphere. I call these people the Scaremongers.

2) Those who believe that much more evidence is needed before any categorical claims can be made. I call these people Idealists.

So lets have a closer look at the issues raised by these two factions:

The Scaremongers predict doom and gloom.

The ‘Yes’ case says emphatically that the earth is getting warmer at an increasing rate, posing a dangerous threat to the future of mankind. They say that the increase in global temperatures over the past 50 years has been caused by a world-wide increase in industrial activity during that same period and earlier. They also suggest that the problem is getting progressively worse and that higher temperatures will lead to melting ice in the polar regions; higher sea levels causing world-wide flooding; more violent storms, hurricanes, typhoons etc; problems in the production of food; and a wide number of other circumstances that could pose problems for life on earth.

The ‘Yes’ case’s solution is to take severe measures today to stop disasters from happening in the future.

They suggest halting and then reversing the situation by eliminating our dependence on oil and coal and embracing ‘clean energy’ such as wind, solar, tidal power; finding an alternative to using oil derivatives for transportation; and most controversially, heavily taxing users of ‘dirty energy’ to force them to switch over to ‘cleaner’ alternatives.

As the biggest users of ‘dirty energy’ the western nations would be exposed to the full impact of these severe impositions.

The Idealists, on the other hand, want more concrete evidence of this forecast change.

The ‘No’ case believes that more credible evidence is needed and collected over a longer period of time, before any definitive conclusion can be determined. They consider that statistically the 50 years period that the Scaremongers quote is nowhere near enough time to establish a long-term trend in the world’s temperatures, taking into account that the age of the earth being 4.5 billion years. They point to the changes, both ups and downs, of the earth’s temperature during its recent history. They also suggest that if a period of climate change is starting then it’s part of a cycle that’s been seen to occur periodically in the past.

The ‘No’ case says that the relationship between possible rising temperatures and man’s industrial activity is at best nothing more than an unproven theory. They suggest that much more concrete evidence than what’ has been presented so far is needed, and as the Scaremongers have been pushing this theory for at least 10 years without producing further evidence, then it’s still a theory.

Some people even suggest that the Scaremongers are inciting public opinion to advance their political ambitions.

However, many of the Idealists agree that a switch to cleaner and renewable energy resources would be beneficial for mankind in the long term, but that the measures put forward by the ‘Yes’ people go too far. Generally, the Idealists agree with the need to find alternate means of energy for when the present sources of fossil fuels - coal, natural gas, oil, uranium - expire, and to get away from suppliers in politically sensitive areas.

The ‘No’ people suggest that as there is a very slim chance of the Scaremongers being proved correct, other world-wide problems should be tackled first and given a greater degree of emphasis than is the present case. Here the Idealists are referring to major issues of world-wide poverty; the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor countries; the decline in health services to poorer countries; the deterioration in the quality of political governance in Africa; threats of religious confrontation; as well as the many regionalized issues that have been a source of continuous friction between nations for decades.

This is an attempt to put some balance into the ongoing international controversy that is the theory of man-made climate change.

The world-wide controversy over the warming of the earth and the causes has led the author to research this phenomena and give his thoughts about the shortcomings of the evidence in support. He also has an interest in more down to earth issues such as how to lose weight and the increasing popularity of satellite TV.

As of November, the European Union?s official stance was that they had no plans for a rescue package that even resembled the plans of the United States bailout package implemented by Paulson. The plan constructed by the United States in response to the fallout of the subprime mortgage market and many investment banks, was seen as much too elaborate for the European Union’s needs. However, this was despite a drastic stressing of the Union?s entire financial banking system and hard evidence of an impending long lasting recession. The fallout of the subprime mortgage market and investment banks was more far reaching than previously expected. The financial ripples were felt allover the world. In spite of this, they still held that their situation on the European continent was not as acute as what was being experienced in the United States, and therefore did not need the same type of plan.

The argument behind this stance was that Europe did not have subprime mortgages or investment banks. However, what originally began in these markets spread like the legs of a cancerous disease to encompass other areas of the financial market. Stocks have plummeted, large and old banks have fallen. Nonetheless, less cohesive a union than the states in the United States, the EU delegated the official decision to the individual states (countries) of its body.

As the loom of financial disaster encroached on their respective financial empires, the countries of the EU all began to cry out for some sort of action to be taken. This December, their pleas were headed.

There was absolutely no dissent among European leaders as they met at an emergency summit in Brussels and agreed unanimously to two hundred billion euro economic bailout package. It did not take too terribly long to see that previous cautionary moves were not enough to save the European Union, and that their economic futures depended (much like the United States) on serious action taken to rescue its financial institutions.

Previously, Great Britain had attempted its own economic stimulus package, sinking twenty billion pounds of that country’s funds into the economy as a sort of drastic measure to try and curb the negative impact of the current financial situation.

The German chancellor ridiculed these actions by Great Britain as being too little by far. His opinion was that the money was placed unwisely and that it would only further damage the economy of Great Britain by sinking the government and its people further into financial debt.

The European Union has spoken out and said at this summit, that they are prepared to take any necessary action to deal with the global economic downturn before it devastates them irrevocably. They firmly have rejected the previous ?does nothing? approach that asked that the market recover naturally and allow the recession to take its course and do away with what it may (a very Darwinist outlook).

This two hundred billion euro stimulus package is designed to help retrieve the European continent from the dredges of recession. The European Union has taken its stand and spoken out, saying, ?We have a responsibility to our people.?

For more information on European Union, visit http://www.eubailout.com.

In these times, the term sustainable development is being applied to nearly everything from energy, clean water, construction, to economic growth. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to question either the basic assumptions behind sustainable development or the way these assumptions are being put to use.

This is no more evident than in the case of agriculture, where sustainably is often the only way to measure progress. Historical and cultural perspectives are often not taken into account when measuring progress.

It is a well known fact that agriculture has played an important role in history and that since the dawn of civilization, agriculture has changed dramatically and will continue to change in the future. In earlier times, agriculture served to feed, clothe and shelter a very rural society with a population density that is much less than we see today. Agriculture then had a minimal effect on biodiversity, and the pollution generated was very much localized.

The methods used in this type of agriculture were very inefficient in terms of use of energy and the nutrients that were captured in the products that were produced.

The dawn of the industrial revolution led to major changes in agricultural methods. Overseas farmers began to create competition, causing local farmers to begin growing specialized crops and employing new methods to increase their yields.

The major benefit of this competition was that food prices dropped, the food was safer and the products were more reliable. The demand for these products also increased. Unfortunately, with those improvements came habitat loss and diminished biodiversity.

Along with an increased demand for agricultural products came a demand for more animal products. This demand is growing at such a rate that millions of additional tons of grain will be needed to sustain this demand. This increased demand for grain to feed these animals raises a new problem.

With the growth of cites and populations the amount of water that is available for agriculture and animal product production is being limited.

As the method of growing crops has changed from the pre-industrialized era, the future of agriculture in the future will again be very different.

As the world population increases, the need for environmentally sustainable practices changes and radical new methods need to be developed. Many of the current practices that focus on the need to produce high yields will be abandoned. The focus will shift to looking at the pros and cons of how land is used, the impact on the environment, the effect on water quality, the carbon footprint, the impact on biodiversity.

Along with the globalization of agriculture, comes the cost and environmental impact that transportation plays. The amount of carbon released into the environment due to the transportation of food goods is now being closely examined. No longer is purchasing food goods from foreign countries the ?green? thing to do.

We could see a shift towards purchasing local products to offset the carbon generated by the massive transportation system needed to move food goods to consumers.　　

Beverly Saltonstall is an environmental writer. Visit http://sustainable-development-forecast.com for news, podcasts, articles and guides on issues such as global warming, recycling, sustainability, and more. For an in-depth look at Sustainable Development, read Our Planet is in Danger. (available on website)

Summer in Vienna is hot and humid. As July, 1683 began, Hapsburg Archduke Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, had retreated to his estate at Perchtoldsdorf to escape the oppressive heat of the city. There, Leopold received disturbing news: the war with the Ottoman Empire had taken an alarming turn. The Austrian Hapsburg army of 30,000 men was in full retreat, unable to halt an Ottoman invasion force numbering 140,000 to 300,000 troops. By July 7, when Leopold returned to Vienna, the Turks were within a few miles of the city. Leopold and the residents of Vienna were forced to flee.

Vienna is situated on the banks of the Danube River where east-west overland trade routes converge. For hundreds of years, trade brought prosperity and gave the city its strategic importance. Culturally, Vienna was hardly a backwater, but the rich artistic and intellectual community the city would become famous for still lay in the future. For its day, it was fairly large, with a population f about 100,000. By the time the Ottoman siege began, only about 15,000 people remained, including 11,000 Hapsburg troops charged with Vienna?s defense. Though no one at the time could know it, the stage was set for a battle that would decide the balance of power in Europe between the western Christian culture and the Islamic east.

EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE WAR

The Ottoman Empire had expanded into the Balkans centuries before and briefly reached as far as Vienna in 1529. For the most part, however, the limits of Ottoman rule extended no further than parts of Hungary. That changed in the 1670s. Partly, this was due to Turkish expansionism, but much of the cause was Leopold?s policies in Hungary. That country was home to ethnic Magyars who resented Hapsburg rule, and a large population of Protestants. Europe was at the end of a century and a half of religious strife, and Leopold, as Holy Roman Emperor, was not inclined to be tolerant of Protestantism. During the 1670s, he pursued a policy of repression against both ethnic unrest and Protestantism.

For Kara Mustafa Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Sultanate, this presented an opportunity. Mustafa provided support to Hungarian rebels led by Imre Thokoly. By 1681, Thokoly had seized control of much of the region bordering Austria, and the Ottoman Empire promptly recognized him as the ?King of Upper Hungary.? However, Hapsburg forces continued to attack. Mustafa persuaded the Sultan to mobilize Turkish forces, and war was declared in August, 1682.

The timing was the first of several strategic blunders on Mustafa?s part. By waiting until August, he made it impossible to attack Vienna before winter, effectively precluding a campaign until the following spring, giving Austria almost a year?s warning. Leopold set about forging alliances with other countries and updating Vienna?s defenses. The most important step was to sign a mutual defense treaty with King John Sobieski of Poland.

THE SIEGE OF VIENNA

Ottoman forces reached Vienna on July 14, after finally beginning the campaign on April 1, 1683. Mustafa sent a demand for surrender. These were only 11,000 defenders. Yet those remaining in the city refused. This may have been as much Mustafa?s own doing as bravery on the part of the defenders. Word had reached them of the fate of the villagers of Perchtoldsdorf. After surrendering to the advancing Turks, the villagers had been slaughtered.

General Ernst Starhemberg was in charge of Vienna?s defense. He had buildings outside the city walls razed, creating a clear field of fire attackers would have to cross. Mustafa decided to lay siege, rather than attack directly. Mustafa may have had no choice. The Ottoman army was deeply divided. Large contingents of Rumanians and Moravians were there under duress and might have refused to carry out a frontal assault.

To speed the campaign, the Turks began to dig trenches to provide cover and tunnels to reach under the city alls. Gunpowder detonated in these tunnels would demolish the fortifications. In response, the troops under Starhemberg also dug tunnels to intersect those of the attackers so these could be sealed off. By September 12, Starhemberg?s force of 11,000 dwindled to 4,000. The rest were dead or wounded, and food was all but exhausted. To make matters worse, the Turks had succeeded in tunneling to the city walls.

THE BATTLE OF VIENNA, SEPTEMBER 12, 1683

At 4 AM on the morning of September 12, the defenders saw bonfires on Kahlen Berg, a hill outside Vienna. John Sobieski, ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, had arrived with the Holy League army of some 80,000 troops. At dawn, Polish infantry led the first assault against the Turks. At this point, Mustafa made his final mistake. Believing he was on the verge of entering the city, he continued to attack Vienna while defending his rear from the Holy League forces. He almost proved correct. Workers had set a great charge of gunpowder in the tunnel under the city wall and lit the fuse. But Starhemberg?s men broke through and defused the charge just in time.

By mid-afternoon, the Ottoman forces were exhausted from fighting attackers on two sides. Sobieski gathered the cavalry and personally led 20,000 horsemen in the largest cavalry charge in history, dealing a crushing blow to the Turks. By nightfall, the Ottoman forces were in full retreat.

LEGACY OF THE BATTLE OF VIENNA

For Mustafa, the defeat was ultimately fatal. He was executed by strangulation on orders from the Sultan. Thokoly ended his days in obscurity, an unwelcome exile among the Turks. The battle of Vienna proved to be more than a simple defeat for the Sultanate. Hapsburg forces began to press forward in a long war that ended only in 1699 with the expulsion f the Turks from Hungary and most of their other holdings in Europe. The threat of Ottoman hegemony in Europe was finished. The fledgling Austro-Hungarian Empire went on to become one of Europe?s great powers for more than two centuries.

Offering a wide array of Vienna Sightseeing Tours, Vienna City Tours is an established online tour operator offering excursions and accommodation in Vienna. We provide sightseeing and guided tours in Vienna.

Wildlife needs to be protected throughout the world. We need to leave enough of nature to pass along to the next generation. Going to the zoo to observe wildlife has its? place but the animals are not in their natural setting, living their natural lives. Leaving enough land and the wildlife that inhabit that land is important to the future generations of people. There is nothing to compare with seeing wildlife in its? natural state. You cannot observe a bald eagle catching fish from a lake at the zoo, and there is no grander sight to behold. Places like Yellowstone National park, Glacier Bay in Alaska or the Florida Everglades allow us the opportunities to see wildlife in a way that a zoo cannot offer.

National Parks are a treasure that we cannot afford to let be destroyed for any reason. The greed of corporate America chasing every dollar has done enough irreversible damage to our country, in particular our wildlife. Living with wildlife can be somewhat difficult. Like having coyotes come onto your property and attack your pets, or wolf packs kill some livestock, but as a whole these incidents are wide spread and the alternative is unthinkable.

Would we destroy all the wild wolves again to insure that not one more head of cattle was killed? Let us hope not, we would be better served to take up a collection to replace any lost livestock. How sad would it be never to be able to see a wild wolf, grizzly bear, or mountain lion again?

What about our endangered marine wildlife? Many of the species of whales that are on the endangered species list do no harm to man at all they just feed on plankton. Yet the fishing industry slaughters thousands of them for no reason every year. How well do we really like fish? We should have the ability to farm raise most of the fish that we need for human consumption.

What of the rain forest of the world? With every acre that is destroyed, we are slowly killing ourselves, not just the plants and wildlife that live there. Not only are we destroying the wildlife of the rain forest but also we could be destroying, or already have destroyed a plant that could cure cancer. Natural rainforests give off and absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide. There is no rainforest in the world today that can be considered unaffected by the impact of human interference.

The forests of the world are being ruined at a fast pace. Over 85% of West Africa’s rainforests has been demolished. After the introduction of humans over 2000 years ago, Madagascar has experienced a loss of almost two thirds of the original rainforest region. At the current rate, tropical rainforests in Indonesia would be cut down in almost 10 years.

Not only do the plants and animals need the rain forest, we need it also for the oxygen that it creates. The loss of the rain forest is one of the key reasons for our weather patterns going awry, and the large build up of greenhouse gasses. So for the sake of all the people of the planet let us do what we can to preserve what is left of nature.

Nathan Martyn is webmaster of Animal Wallpaper, a site dedicated to animal desktop backgrounds and wallpaper.

I was recently watching the news about the 26 November 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. Several terrorists had entered Mumbai, India from the sea route and had attacked the Taj Hotel, Oberoi, Trident and a building called Nariman House at Colaba. My spouse who was also watching with me said ?I just don?t understand how these idiots can be so ruthless and kill innocent people as if they were mosquitoes and not humans. I wonder what they get out of it.? After a few moments I said ?What if the terrorists aren?t idiots? What if they seriously got something out of it; maybe the greatest thing they could ever dream of??

My spouse was stunned and thought that I had gone crazy; maybe I needed a rest after watching too much TV and urged me to go and sleep. However, I stood my words and said that I could explain. Once I received the ?proceed? nod, I went on:

Anyone can be tempted. There is no human alive that can?t be broken down, provided it is the right temptation, at the right place, and at the right time. In my opinion, based on the recent research I was doing on human behavior and psychology, I said that ?hope? is one of the biggest promises that these cult organizations gave to their members. They first have a group of experts, who move around in the right places and identify the ?prospective converts? to terrorism by judging their mental and physical ability to do the heinous work. Or, who can be trained to do it. They especially look out for folks who are in urgent need of ?finance? or a need which can be fulfilled by them. Then another group of experts are set off to ?lure? or ?seduce? them.

They first identify the core issues of prospective terrorists, aggravate their pain, and finally make them believe that only they hold the key to bring them out of their present pathetic situations. Cult leaders are masters at covert persuasion and human psychology and they know how to brainwash these young folks. They possess a brutally honest understanding of human nature. Although large sums of money are also given to join them to take care of any financial problems (and most personal problems are certainly solved by finance) the leaders ensure that the members totally, unconditionally, faithfully believe in the cause that they are made to believe. The incredible pictures that are painted in their prospects minds make them believe that it is truly a rare opportunity to join them; it is the ultimate path to ?nirvana?, so to speak.

Cult leaders also control the hidden needs that humans are prone to, of their prospects. Some of these are:

1. People need to feel they are right: Cult leaders make their members feel that they are absolutely right in their expectations from life and certainly deserve everything that they hope to achieve in life. They show that they can get everything for a mere sacrifice of their life. They put very high stakes on their expectations and very low stakes on their life by giving examples of how cheap life really is, how people will kill even for a meal, how life is uncertain anyway and how you can lose it at the snap of a finger by an accident, earthquake, etc. On the other hand they agree that the expectations are genuine and although they are capable of achieving it, there is so much uncertainty that the chances are pretty slim. But if they join the community their expectation will be fulfilled. In fact, this is also a chance of going to jannat (heaven) if he died of jihad (the struggle to improve one?s self and / or society).

2. People need to be noticed and felt understood: This is a big one. Today, people are so busy with their lives and goals; they hardly have time to spend with their children. Recession, employee layoff, uncertainty, competition, etc add to the reason. Because of this, teens today are almost left on their own to decide what is best for them. They are bossed around, dictated, advised to improve, preached, and argued with more often than spending time to play with them, understand their point of view, and expressing the love for them. Cult leaders take full advantage of this weakness and can easily lure them into their community.

3. People need to feel needed: There is an enormous difference between telling someone that you need them and making them feel that you need them. Extending the example above, I can safely say that, sadly, most parents lack far behind in this issue. They fail to express themselves, thinking that their children will take advantage of that fact. In my opinion, you can easily separate the need with being practical. You can very well say that although you need them, you will manage without them if required; that?s how life is anyway. The takeaway here is, cult leaders take their parents place and express their need of them emotionally, and then leave it to them to decide if they wish to join. They?re actually doing a two fold manipulation ? first, they?re expressing that they need them. This drives the prospect to feel that they should reciprocate in some way. And when the ball is left in their court, they feel like being treated like a grown-up and not being pushed. This way, they automatically fall in the trap.

I hope this article gave you some insights of how cults work. The purpose of writing this is not to learn how to become a cult leader, rather, how to take care of your children so that they don?t fall prey to such manipulative and misguiding people.

Nirjara Rustom moderates the Metaphysical Section of http://www.bharatbhasha.com at http://www.bharatbhasha.com/metaphysical.php - a free informative resource.

Lately, the news has come in flooding waves for me. The election, bailouts, and endlessly horrible employment news have washed over me, and left a sort of numb feeling in place of my usual optimism. Capitalism seems to have died a death at the hands of worldwide greed, and I am left shaking my head at a growing list of casualties. That’s just the domestic scene. When I take a look at the sprawling, worldwide chaos, the picture becomes even darker.

India is considering a strike against Pakistan. Israel is weighing strikes against both Iran and Syria. The United States faces an impending disaster in Afghanistan, pondering the age old old question “Should I stay or should I go?”. Then, there is the Cold War posturing that Russia has rediscovered of late. They have reinserted themselves into the international conversation once again, in a very aggressive manner.

We are seeing substantial devaluation across currencies worldwide, and some of it is intentional. For instance, the Chinese have devalued the yuan to keep their exports competitive, even as consumption drops in the Western world.The Russian ruble has been dying a slow, agonizing death for months now. Its prospects against the dollar have fallen by 30%, and show no signs of hitting a solid bottom. Iceland is on the verge of anarchy, due to the insolvency of the krona, and the resulting anger at the government’s perceived culpability.

Instability is the only constant worldwide, with the occasional sprinkling of outright implosion. In all this, the cry from the international -and domestic- communities is a global solution. It makes sense, to a certain degree. Ockham’s razor would naturally deem that a problem of global scope should be paired with a solution of the same depth. While I generally have no qualms with the theory. that “All things being equal, the simplest solution is the best”, I believe Mssr.Ockham would think twice before applying his philosophy to international crises.

I can hear some of you who fervently wish for world peace asking “Why? I mean, isn’t it time we put aside our differences, our Nationalism, and our borders? Isn’t now the best time to embrace our fellow man, and weather this crisis as a member of the human race.” That is an admirable sentiment. Let us examine the logistical issues inherent in the adoption of global governance (n?e government).

Let’s start with the chosen form of Government: You’ve got your Monarchies, Theocracies, Democracies, Benevolent Dictatorships, Technocracies, and all forms of Socialist variants in-between. Now, you want people with diametrically opposed ideals to come to a consensus on how the world should be run. This could be done, but all parties would have to agree to binding resolutions that may or may not contradict the Constitutions adopted by the inhabitants of their respective countries. If this is done, then you wipe out another hurdle that presents itself: National Sovereignty.

That one is a doozy, because it wipes out the individualism of nations. Sure, you may keep your cute, cultural idiosyncracies. You’ll still wear lederhosen, a Sikh’s turban,or the tartan kilt passed down to you by your grandfather. What will disappear are the laws you have been accustomed to following your whole life. For someone in the United States,it would be the obliteration of State’s rights. Want to legalize medical marijuana in your state? It has to be approved by the governing body for the entire world, and the legal code of the entire world must be amended, just so your Granny with glaucoma can get access. Want to appeal an unjust judgment? You get to go through various levels of an internationally appointed judiciary. All of your local decisions are subject to the whims of an international body. Even if their motives are completely pure (unlikely at best), the system still leaves ample room for corruption and vast inefficiency.

What about handling issues of equality? There’s a sticky situation. While they could handle the issue of dominant nations by giving them preferential seats in the new government, it would still provoke the criticism of the rest of the governing body. Nobody really cares for the UN model of government, as they merely pass guidelines, not binding legislation. They draft resolutions with all the legal enforcibility of “the gentleman’s handshake”. The smaller nations want equal voice with the US, China, and Russia. This would have to be remedied, in order for the smaller nations to agree to surrender their sovereignty. Larger nations would have to eat some national pride, and swallow the bitter pill of decreased international relevance. In short, there had better be some kind of “Supreme Leader” in charge to smooth the ruffled feathers. How are they going to come to agreement on appointing the Emperor of the Planet? These people can’t even agree on which form of government is best. This, is only minor squabbling compared to…

Religion. In a government made up of diverse population, and differing views on what is “the only true way to God”, how do you keep one religion from being imposed on all the others. Most Christians look on Constantine’s misguided reign as a horrible time for their religion. A forced conversion to a state(or world) religion would be many times worse than the rule of any Roman emperor in times past. Far worse than that would be the travesty of forced parity between all religions. This is a freedom of speech issue. The Muslim would not be able to declare “Allahu Akhbar(god is greater)”, because it is contrary to parity. The Christian could not declare “Jesus is the Son of God”, because it contradicts the statements of Islam and Judaism. The follower of Judaism could not declare “Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is One”, because it devalues the claims of Hinduism. This is the primary obstacle for a global government, and one that will remain a vexing issue, should they choose either of the options previously discussed.

Financially, the problem of switching to a universal currency like the Euro is easily on its way to being solved. I only mention it as an afterthought. Physical currency would not even have to be minted. Well, maybe for developing nations. For the developed world, one would turn into a society like the Japanese have: A relatively cashless society, where you can pay with your cell phone, or credit card. Most of the groundwork, trading, and information systems are already in place to facilitate such an exchange. Your old currency would simply be given an exchange rate. There would be a one-time trade in, and the destruction of all other currencies would commence shortly thereafter. Problem solved.

While global government is inevitable, the challenges that face it are almost insurmountable. This ensures that it will be poorly implemented, poorly received, and roundly declared a triumph of humanity. The solutions, however, are unable to be solved by Mr. Ockham. You know, “All things being equal, the simplest solution is best”, and all that. The problem lies in the fact that neither of his premises can be applied here: In the world of international politics, nothing is simple. The other problem is more adequately explained by a paraphrase of George Orwell. He had this to say “All animals (nations) are equal, but some animals (nations) are more equal than others.”

Kurt Hartman is Head of Employee Training for Mobile Fleet Service, Inc. They sell tires to the mining, construction and heavy equipment industries. As a complimentary service, they offer tire specifications to the OTR Tire industry.

For the most part when it comes to commemorative coins the United States Congress authorizes commemorative pieces that lionize and honor American individuals, places, events, and institutions. Although these coins are legitimate tender, they are not coined for common circulation instead they are merely coined as “art”. Each commemorative coin is produced by the United States Mint in closed quantity and is only accessible for a specific amount of time. As far as I can tell the World Trade Center coins found underneath the Twin Towers have yet to become a part of the Mint coin program, frankly I don’t really understand why! However, these coins are a part of another program; the PCGS also known as the Professional Coin Grading Service which is the premier Internet site for collectors of coins.

These coins in particular that were found in the vaults can be worth a lot of money (from a few hundred on up to a few thousand), so under advanced security measures the coins were loaded into Brinks Armored vehicles and sent to Collectors Universe a parent company of the well-known Professional Coin Grading Service.

This particular organization is the archetypal company for collectors of coins. Once this organization collected all of the coins they then continued on to catalog, grade and encapsulate in the Professional Coin Grading Service high security tamper resistant capsules along with a specially designed commemorative United States Flag insert that identifies the coins as a genuine artifact. This is how you can actually tell if a coin is legit or not and is produced like this as a part of the grading and collection guide which can be seen on their website.

There are numerous different coins being commemorated for this particular event including the 2000 World Trade Center ground zero recovery gold eagle, silver eagle, and also a few uncirculated 1993 silver eagle gem. To buy these coins you can spend anywhere from $60 on up to $1000+. These coins truly are a piece of our history and it’s definitely a part, if you could choose any part, that you should have in your collections!

It doesn’t matter if your a master at collecting these types of coins or materials or if you are just starting out, or if you are going to hold on to these for personal reasons or sell these for some cold hard cash, this is a noteworthy part of history that you can take possession over starting right this very moment. I have known of quite a few people that have inducted these coins in to their own little collection because they had a loved one or knew someone in the World Trade Center bombings, so something like this means a lot to them not only for personal reasons but for remembrance of loved ones lost. These coins are anything but gaudy, in fact they are simply amazing to even glance at in image view. I can only imagine what they really look like in person! If you think you would be interested in something like this, check it out the next time your online. I think you will be really surprised by the craftsmanship of these coins! Absolutely stunning!

This author is a HUGE fan of WTC Gold

She was not born a countess. On the contrary she came from solid bourgeois stock. One of six children, Marion was never spoiled, but the family believed in a good education for girls no less than boys. So she was sent to the most progressive and only co-educational school in Berlin, where she was in the same class as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and ? what was exceptional in her age ? she went on to university to study law.

Not that Marion was a book worm. She told me that she never worried about politics as a girl or young woman and remembers only the ?good times? of the ?Roaring Twenties? ? the period when Berlin was one of the most dynamic centers of art, literature, music and theater in the world, easily on a par with New York, London and Paris.

One day she was invited to an extravagant wedding on a large estate in Silesia. The place next to her was left vacant for a guest who came late. The young man swept in and, Marion felt, treated her far too familiarly. She thought the young count was arrogant and cynical. But Peter Count Yorck von Wartenburg fell in love at first sight.

Peter too was a lawyer, and he had soon won Marion over ? maybe in part because he never suggested she give up her studies. On the contrary, he helped her get her PhD in jurisprudence. They married shortly after he completed the equivalent of the bar exam in 1930. Although Marion had not yet completed the three-year practical training that was then a required part of German legal training before she could sit for the final exam, Marion was already 26 and wanted to have children. She stopped her studies, and devoted herself to making a home of the little apartment Peter and she shared.

Marion could not tell me exactly when she and Peter slid from opposition and disapproval of the Nazis to resistance and treason. One key factor was their friendship with Helmuth Count Moltke, whom the Yorcks met n 1940. Soon Peter and Helmuth, both sons of families that had produced some of Germany?s most famous generals of by-gone eras, were discussing with increasing energy all that was wrong with Nazi Germany ? and what had to be done to set things right.

Neither Moltke nor Yorck were in a position to change anything. Both were civil servants. Nor did the two men initially know about the military conspiracy to depose Hitler. But it was obvious to them from 1941 onwards that Germany would lose the war and that the Nazi regime would one-day fall, and they wanted ? in part just to keep themselves from despair, as Marion told me ? to think about what a post-Hitler Germany ought to look like. Gradually, they drew other people into their circle, selecting men, who had expertise in one area or another, so that all aspects of a future, German state could be properly thought through. Eventually, the connection was made to members of the military resistance, and a loose alliance was formed. While the military conspirators were responsible for getting rid of Hitler and his regime, the Kreisauer Circle, as the group of thinkers around Counts Yorck and Moltke came to be called, was responsible for developing the outlines of a future, post-Nazi German government and constitution.

Molke, it should be noted, opposed an assassination of Hitler. He felt that killing Hitler would enable a martyr-legend to evolve. The German people, he argued, would claim that Germany would have won the war ?if only the F?hrer had lived,? and he felt the Germans needed to suffer complete and humiliating defeat in order to fully understand their complicity in the crimes committed by the Nazi regime. Yorck, perhaps more strongly influenced by his distant cousin, Claus Count Stauffenberg, supported the assassination attempt. Moltke was arrested for treason on January 11, 1944, before the coup attempt. Yorck took part in the coup and was arrested that same evening.

Marion never saw her husband again after saying good-bye to him on the morning of July 20, 1944. By evening, she knew the coup had failed and Peter was under arrest. All requests to see her husband were denied, but she learned that Peter was to go on trial before the feared ?People?s Court? on August 8, along with several of other conspirators. The ?People?s Court? was a Nazi institution which had been created in 1934 with the explicit mandate to eliminate all domestic enemies of the National Socialist Movement. By 1944, the Court, headed by the infamous judge Roland Freisler, was notorious for sentencing people to death for nothing more than circulating a joke against the regime or for a diary entry expressing doubt about ?Final Victory.? Marion was under no illusion that her husband would get a fair trial, but she made her way to the imposing building that housed the court in the hope of being able to see Peter ? and let him see her.

When Marion reached the gatehouse, the guards stopped her. She needed a special pass to attend the trial. But the guards, on learning who she was, invited her to sit in their guardroom with them. Here she could hear through a window high in the wall over her head the proceedings of the court.

All day, Marion sat in the guard room and listened to Judge Freisler?s high-pitched, scratchy voice heap abuse and insults on the defendants. He rarely let them answer the questions he posed, cutting them off in mid-sentence and mocking whatever they said. Marion could not hear what was said by either the court-appointed lawyers or the men on trial. Because the judge never addressed the defendant by name, only as ?Defendant,? she had to rely on the guards to tell her who was actually before the bench at any one time. They told her when Peter was before Freisler, but she could not hear his answers any more than that of the others. The process ended with the expected sentence to death.

Marion went home and wrote a last letter to her husband which she personally carried to Gestapo Headquarters. Here she begged the man on duty to give her letter to her husband. She told the Gestapo that her husband had just been sentenced to death, but duty officer saw no urgency in her request. He sent Marion away. By the time she got home again, he was already dead.

Her own arrest followed the next day. She was arrested, as were the wives of all known conspirators, merely for being who she was - not because anyone suspected she had actually taken part in the planning of the coup. Fortunately for Marion, Nazi ideology cast women in the role of mothers and housewives, not partners.

Still, Marion?s fate was not easy. She was kept in isolation for weeks on end, locked in a cell with no direct sunlight ? a time she came to treasure in retrospect because, as she put it, it was a chance for her to absorb Peter into her inner self. She was interrogated repeatedly, but never tortured. Eventually, she was granted the right to exercise, and then released ? just in time to experience the Russian occupation. Because she had returned to Peter?s parents home in Silesia, Marion found herself hiding in barns and graveyards in order to avoid the orgies of rape and murder that accompanied the Soviet occupation of Germany. Eventually, Marion made it back to Berlin without a serious mishap and there she was able to move into her old house. The Russians, once they had settled down into organized occupation, recognized Peter Count Yorck von Wartenburg ? despite his criminal aristocratic class - as an ?Anti-Fascist Resistance Fighter? and gave Marion a document stating this and ordering everyone to help her!

But Marion kept slipping back across the new Polish border without proper papers to Peter?s home in Silesia. One day the Poles caught her. She was put in prison and her paper from the Russians did her no good. Weeks went by and she had no idea why she was being held. There were lice in the cell and the food, as Marion put it, was worse than what they fed the pigs on Peter?s estate. Eventually, however, she was sent to Warsaw and here, at last, a Russian colonel recognized the significance of her ?Anti-Fascist? I.D. He agreed to help her - but first she had to spend another three weeks in a freezing cell, from which water dripped off the walls.

Then just as suddenly as the arrest, Marion was set free. She was in Breslau, a city that had once been German but was now Polish. She had no money. No clothes but what she was wearing and she was, as she put it, ?as dirty as a hunting dog.? She had lice too. She went to Caritas, a Catholic aid organization, where she was taken in, given shelter, food, a delousing, a bath and clean clothes. Here she learned to her amazement that Freya von Moltke, the widow of Helmuth Count Moltke, had reported her missing to the Americans, and they had informed the French Consul in Breslau. Although it was not easy, eventually the Caritas managed to get Marion back to Berlin ? loaded with secret messages from the Caritas in Poland to their sister organization in Germany.

Back in Berlin, Marion first took work with the social welfare office of the city council. This was dominated by Communists, but Marion?s work was to find and reunite the families of the resistance members. When the coup failed on July 20, 1944, not only were the most of the wives, parents and adult children of the condemned also arrested, but the young children and infants of the conspirators were assigned new names and divided up among ?good? Nazi families. Thus, quite apart from all difficulties of trying to find loved-ones in a world where the infrastructure was largely obliterated, neither post nor telephones worked, and new borders with new rulers had been created, the survivors of the resistance had to find out under what name and to which Nazi family their small children had been given. It was important work, and Marion enjoyed it. But around her she witnessed the increasing terror of the German Communists and their Soviet masters. Marion had experienced the consequences of one dictatorship far too acutely to be indifferent. She turned her back on the East and looked for new opportunities in the Western Sectors of Berlin.

The Americans at the time (1946) were desperately looking for trained lawyers and judges who were not tainted by a Nazi past. Marion was short just one exam and one last practical internship before being a qualified lawyer. She was advised to complete both as soon as possible, and no sooner was she finished than she was appointed judge.

One might think that her lack of experience as a lawyer made her ill-suited for the position of judge, but Marion pointed out to me that she had other experiences at least ? if not more ? valuable. Marion knew the smell of prisons from the inside, that ?constant mixture of food and urine.? She knew the agonies of isolation, the indignities of lice and filth, and never could she forget the sound of Freisler screaming at her husband without ever using his proper name.

Marion vowed that she would never address any defendant by anything other than their proper name. And she vowed she would never condemn anyone to any sentence without first making sure that she understood his or her motives. She rose rapidly in the ranks of the West German judiciary and retired in 1969. And she kept her vows.

Award-Winning Novelist Helena P. Schrader describes people she met during her research on the German Resistance to Hitler. For more information about the novel, An Obsolete Honor, and the German Resistance to Hitler, visit her website at: An Obsolete Honor.

Philipp Baron von Boeselager made no claim to be a hero ? despite his Knight?s Cross and other lesser decorations for bravery he had received during the war. Others have begged to differ. Philipp von Boeselager is possibly the only recipient of Hitler?s Knight?s Cross, who is also an Officer of the French Legion of Honor. The latter was awarded him in 2004 in recognition of his role in the coup d?etat against Hitler on July 20th 1944. Boeselager, accepted the honor ?for those who are no longer with us.? Boeselager provided me with unusual insight into the Wehrmacht and its command apparatus.

In the winter of 1941 Philipp Baron von Boeselager was severely wounded on the Eastern Front. Following a stomach wound, he could only walk with crutches and had extreme pain which he could only master with morphine. Nevertheless, he was deemed fit for staff work and asked whether he would be willing to serve as aide (Ordonnanzoffizier) to Feldmarschall von Kluge, then commanding Army Group Center on the Eastern Front. Just before the train pulled into Smolesk, Russia, where the headquarters of Army Group Center was located, Boeselager threw his crutches out the window. He feared that if he reported to his new superior on crutches, that the Field Marshal would send him home again as unfit for duty. He continued to take morphine until the end of the war.

The staff at Army Group Center was dominated by the First General Staff Officer, Henning von Tresckow, and Tresckow had turned the staff of Army Group Center into a nest of opposition to Hitler. Tresckow had been a witness to the slaughter of the Jewish population of Babi Yar by SS Special Units (Einsatzkommandos). By the time Boeselager joined the staff of Army Group Center, Tresckow was already working closely with the two nerve centers of resistance in Berlin, the General Army Office under General Friedrich Olbricht, and Military Counter Intelligence under Admiral Canaris. Olbricht had already developed the blue-print for a coup, disguised as an official plan for suppressing domestic unrest, Plan Valkyrie. Meanwhile, Canaris? right-hand man, Hans Oster, was working on finding a means and opportunity to assassinate Hitler. Tresckow?s role was to get his superior, Field Marshal von Kluge, on board the conspiracy, and so provide the conspirators with fighting troops with which to hold on to power and put down any counter-revolt by SS troops loyal to the Nazis.

Kluge had been an opponent of Hitler since before the war. He had been part of the coup plans against Hitler in 1938. He was also a first class general. It was his 4th Army that had broken through the ostensibly impassable Ardennes and so turned the French Maginot Line, and it was his Army that cut off the British Expeditionary Force with its back to the sea just weeks after the start of the Western offensive in 1940. It is an irony that the name of one of his subordinate divisional commanders, Erwin Rommel, is more famous today.

When Boeselager joined Kluge?s staff, Kluge was more disillusioned with Hitler than ever before ? but he was not yet ready to move from opposition to resistance, from criticism to treason. As the situation on the Eastern Front deteriorated, Boeselager became a first-hand witness of Kluge?s cruel dilemma as Hitler?s Field Marshal.

One of the duties of a field marshal?s aide was to listen to every official telephone conversation that the field marshal conducted. Thus Boeselager heard everything Kluge said to his subordinate Army Commanders ? and every talk with Hitler. Boeselager remembered vividly the way Hitler would manipulate conversations and confuse matters. He remembered the absurdity of Hilter ? the Commander-in-Chief of millions of troops ? ordering the re-location of individual battalions. He remembered that Hitler would try to distract Kluge from a specific request by talking at length in rambling language about his strategic plans for conquering India ? or change the subject by saying something like, ?Oh, and by the way, I have allowed myself to send roses to your wife on the occasion of her birthday.?

Boeselager?s duties also took him to Hitler?s headquarters, where on occasion he was included in the inner circle. Boeselager is probably one of the only witnesses, who could testify to the fact that in a small circle, Hitler could be a witty and amusing conversationalist. Boeselager told me that at one dinner he was practically convulsed laughter, although he later could not remember exactly what the dictator had said. Nor did the incident in anyway change his abhorrence of man.

At least once, Boeselager?s inability to disguise his contempt for Hitler?s entourage got him arrested. On this occasion, Kluge was closeted with Hitler and other senior officers and Boeselager was left to take a meal with Martin Bormann and others of Hitler?s personal staff. Boeselager had flown in from the front with Kluge to plead for the right to pull back 100,000s of troops in danger of being cut off in a ?mini-Stalingrad.? He could hardly eat for worry about what was happening on the front, but Hitler?s staff was complaining about the lack of fresh strawberries! Boeselager couldn?t contain himself. He told Bormann what he thought of him, and the next thing he knew he was locked in a small chamber with a guard posted outside. Kluge found him there and with a rhetorical ?What are you doing here?? got him out. But Kluge also warned his aide that next time ?he might not be so lucky.?

On another occasion, Boeselager overheard a conversation in which Hitler?s entourage discussed the fact that ?once they were finished with the Jews? they would ?go for the Catholics.? Boeselager interrupted immediately and told them that they could start with him. Bormann dismissed the objection, saying, ?Recipients of the Knight?s Cross would be exempted from extermination.? A response, which did nothing to reduce Boeselager’s loathing of Hitler and his minions.

Boeselager was also a witness to Kluge?s honest, tenacious and sometimes desperate attempts to get Hitler to allow Army Group Center to withdraw and re-group as the pressure from the Red Army became overwhelming. To no avail. By March 1943, Kluge could take no more. He agreed to join the conspiracy against Hitler ? on the condition that Hitler was killed. Kluge argued that unless Hitler was dead, most officers would remain true to their personal oath to Hitler and there would be civil war. He approved a plan developed by his staff to shoot Adolf Hitler in a collective assassination attempt when Hitler visited Army Group Center Headquarters in Smolensk.

The plans were made. The location set: the Officer?s Mess of Army Group Center. The date: March 13, 1943. Hitler came to Smolesk, he ate in the Mess surrounded by officers determined to eliminate him, and nothing happened. At the last minute, Kluge apparently lost his nerve. Boeselager believes that the Field Marshal did not want to go down in history as a murderer and traitor.

But there is another explanation. As Hitler left Smolensk that day, Tresckow smuggled a bomb into his aircraft with the 30-minute fuse already running. If the bomb had detonated, Hitler?s aircraft would have gone down over partisan-infested territory. Plan Valkyrie would have gone into effect and the Army would have taken control of the entire military and government apparatus before the wreckage of the plane could even be recovered. The British explosives used in the bomb would have suggested a foreign plot, and the conspirators would have been given a chance to consolidate power. In short, this means of killing Hitler was far superior to a joint pistol attack that instantly incriminated the German Army in the assassination. Is it possible that Tresckow informed Kluge of this option, and this was the real reason Kluge told his officers not to shoot? We will never know. But Boeselager had had enough staff work. He asked for and received a transfer back to the troops, to his beloved cavalry.

When July 1944 came, Philipp was commanding a cavalry regiment on the Eastern Front. His brother Georg commanded the cavalry brigade to which his regiment was attached and was working closely with Tresckow, who was now Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army. Tresckow knew about Count Stauffenberg?s plans to carry out the assassination against Hilter himself, and Georg Baron von Boeselager passed the word to Philipp. Philipp was ordered ? by the conspiracy, not his military superiors ? to re-deploy a 1,200-man cavalry task-force composed of six squadrons to Berlin to protect the post-Hitler government that would take power after the coup on July 20.

On 18 July 1944, Boeselager set the plan in motion. One thousand two hundred cavalrymen were withdrawn from their positions on the front and given orders to ride west toward a rendezvous point where they would transfer to motorized transport which would then take them to an airfield. Only a few of the cavalry officers knew what they were doing, but the troops trusted Boeselager implicitly and Boeselager did not act irresponsibly. Wherever he withdrew his selected squadrons, he ensured that sufficient troops remained behind to hold the front against the Red Army. Philipp himself stayed behind at his HQ as long as possible, and only at the last minute boarded a staff car to catch up with his troops, whom he reached on the evening of 19 July 1944.

His troops had now been riding for 36 hours straight. Philipp mounted and rode with his men. As the cavalry rode through the second night, some of the men were so exhausted they fell asleep even at a trot; some fell right out of their saddles and had to be helped back on their horses by their comrades. At three am, the cavalry task-force finally reached the rendezvous point with motorized transport and embarked.

Before they reached the airfield, however, a messenger for Georg Boeselager overtook them: Return to Base. Georg Boeselager had learned what many of the conspirators in Berlin didn’t know yet: Stauffenberg had failed. The bomb he set off in Hitler?s HQ detonated ? but failed to kill the dictator. With Hitler alive, the Nazi apparatus was still intact, and counter-orders, countermanding all the coup instructions, were already going out to all the various units. Even as Olbricht and Stauffenberg in Berlin tried desperately to bring down the Nazi government, Boeselager?s cavalry task-force was rushing back toward the front. Because the entire maneuver had nothing to do with the war and had not been sanctioned by his chain-of-command, Boeselager risked being exposed as a supporter of the coup d?etat. Despite the exhaustion of the men, Boeselager could not let them rest. They needed to return to their positions even faster than they left them.

Philipp summarized the urgency of the situation by saying that he gave the order to maintain a trot even on paved roads ? something anathema to a good cavalry officer. As one of his squadrons trotted over a paved cross-road, they ran into Georg von Boeselager, the more senior of the brothers, and the troops ? afraid of getting Philipp in trouble ? immediately reduced pace to a walk. When Georg von Boeselager signaled them to keep trotting, they knew that whatever they had been doing was very serious indeed! As the news broke that evening of the failed assassination attempt against Hitler, they all guessed the truth. But not one of the 1,200 men involved in the action betrayed their commanders, Philipp and Georg von Boeselager.

Philipp survived to tell the story. Georg was killed leading his cavalry brigade on August 27, 1944. He was one of the most highly decorated army officers of the entire German Wehrmacht, a devout Catholic and a bitter opponent of Hitler from start to finish.

Award-Winning Novelist Helena P. Schrader describes people she met during her research on the German Resistance to Hitler. For more information about the novel, An Obsolete Honor, and the German Resistance to Hitler, visit her website at: An Obsolete Honor.