Scientists at Germany’s Kiel University predict the Earth’s temperature will stay roughly the same in the coming decade as the planet’s natural climate cycle enters a cooling phase. But thereafter, the researchers expect temperatures to begin rising quickly by about 2020. – unless they don’t. The forecast centers around the ocean’s natural temperature cycles, called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), which is closely associated with the warm currents that carry heat from the tropics to European shores. “One message from our study is that in the short term, you can see changes in the global mean temperature that you might not expect given the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),” Noel Keenlyside of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at Kiel University told BBC News.

Read the entire article in the Journal Science.

It’s all about brinkmanship. The U. S. holds few trumps. China is leaning way forward - it even proposed a U. S.-China Pacific partitioning, and Taiwan is watching it arm to the teeth. The communist state Is be set on tripling its ground based nuclear weapons force by 2009. The US Navy does not yet have a full answer to the latest Chinese missiles that could be used against its most powerful Pacific weapon the carrier task force. China is aggressively at work in cyberspace to the tune that’s prompted the U. S. Air Force to add cyberspace to its triad.

One U. S. trump is its F-22 fighter-bomber. The F-22 is considered the most advanced aircraft in the American arsenal and is a key element of the Pentagon’s “hedge” strategy against China. The stealth fighter bomber is believed to have unmatched capabilities to penetrate Chinese air defenses and thus is viewed by Beijing as a major threat. The U. S. has not yet sold the F-22 to Australia or Japan (both of whom wants it) because that would inflame China.

So, the F-22 and even a Presidential appearance at the Beijing Olympics this summer are entwined in a complex, strategic showdown as well as a much more pedestrian place in U. S. Presidential politics.

Some of today’s hottest gadgets from Apple iPods, digital picture frames sold by Target and Best Buy stores and TomTom navigation gear, are landing on U. S. store shelves complete with computer viruses that automatically download personal information. In many cases the source is China. When one LA based computer expert plugged an electronic frame into his Windows PC, his antivirus program alerted him to a threat. The $50 frame, built in China and bought at Target, was infested with four viruses, including one that steals passwords. Who’s watching – nobody who can even turn on a light switch. Lesson– caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware” for UC graduates).

Congratulations and thank you to a celebrity that has used her voice to point out what is really happening on the ground. Jolie reported what she saw and was told by people there and didn’t push a liberal, anti-America agenda that so many from Hollywood do today.

Before me is the article written by Angelina Jolie and published in the Washington Post.com opinions page. It is titled “Staying to Help in Iraq”. I hate it when I see quotes taken out of context so let me give you the complete quote that I’ve paraphrased in the title above. In the article Jolie stated, “What we cannot afford, in my view, is to squander the progress that has been made.” She goes on to say that we should step up our financial and material assistance.

Jolie is not only an actress but is a humanitarian activist and a United Nations good will ambassador. She works with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Her article is about the Iraqi refugees still in Iraq and those that fled the country. It is her opinion that we have now reached a point in Iraq where humanitarian assistance can be effective.

The progress that she refers to is the progress made by the “surge” that has been effective in recent months in reducing our military losses and increasing security overall in Iraq. She met with Gen. David Petraeus and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. She even talked with American troops. Jolie feels that our recent success in Iraq has paved the way for increased humanitarian assistance and has asked for more money and effort in that area.

“As for the question of whether the surge is working, I can only state what I witnessed: U.N. staff and those of non-governmental organizations seem to feel they have the right set of circumstances to attempt to scale up their programs”, reported Jolie. Thank you for that, Ms. Jolie. Thank you for your honesty and the integrity to be on point with your stated goal. I hope that you are successful in your attempts to help the Iraqi refugees. With the continued help and support of the American government and military you will be successful.

Wait; let me qualify that about the American government. Barak Obama and Hilliary Clinton may put a stop to the good we’re doing in Iraq. They both promise that they’ll pull us out. Senator Reid and Representative Pelosi think our troops are murders and terrorists. Senator Kerry says we are the bad guys. Maybe, Ms. Jolie you should just count on the troops that you spoke to. The ones you said about, “And when I asked the troops if they wanted to go home as soon as possible, they said that they miss home but feel invested in Iraq. They have lost many friends and want to be part of the humanitarian progress they now feel is possible”.

Democrats and far too many Republicans have demonized President Bush and our military; I wonder how fast these same folks will rush to take credit for the humanitarian progress being made and that Ms. Jolie seems to think can now increase?

“Unprecedented” is the way yesterday’s ‘one shot, one kill’ Navy mission is being described. The plunging satellite slammed into the sea launched anti-missile missile’s ‘kinetic kills device” at 17,000 miles per hour for a combined collision speed of 22,000 MPH leaving nothing bigger than a football sized piece of the bus sized 5,000 pound gadget. The spy satellite was launched in December 2006 and immediately went haywire and has been orbiting the globe with a fuel tank full of toxic hydrazine and a couple tons of classified gear that had the Chinese and Russians slobbering. That’s all over now.

“Lucky swabs” said an email from a Marine Corp buddy early Thursday then he added, “GO NAVY.”

Who hasn’t seen enough SPAM to choke a, well, horse. We all get it, and because it appears to have some profit associated with it we will probably continue to receive it until a) it proves to be non-profitable or b) we figure out efficiently how to ignore it.

Who hasn’t seen enough articles about SPAM blocking, filtering, deleting to choke that same horse? Articles abound, good articles, articles everybody should read so as to learn the existence of anti-spam programs, techniques, and philosophies. Unsolicited, here is an example: http://tinyurl.com/yoae55. Just Google on ‘SPAM in my Inbox’ if you haven’t already; you’ll be overwhelmed with the millions (literally) hits returned by Google…

But see, there is another aspect to this whole issue that is still unaddressed,