Friday, October 22, 2010
Sunday, May 14, 2006
My Toronto Star Article on Terminator Seeds, March 17, 2006
This article appeared the weekend before the UN Convention on Biodiversity met in Curitiba, Brazil. Fortunately, owing to worldwide concern over the issue, the existing moratorium on the use of terminator seeds was upheld at this high-level meeting.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1142549411996
E. Woodworth
May 14, 2006
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1142549411996
E. Woodworth
May 14, 2006
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Librarians as Agents of Social Justice
Hello to Library Associations in the US, Canada, and Britain:
I am a recently retired public health librarian, of 30 years duration, who is researching Web use statistics to analyse what the world public is searching for on the Internet. I have undertaken this project in view of the fact that mainstream media lacks coverage in relation to certain kinds of events.
For example, a recently published article by myself in the Toronto Star (Canada's largest daily) at (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1142549411996), was the first article in the mainstream media to draw attention to the Canadian Government stance on Terminator seeds. This article was forwarded to the Canadian delegation at the recent high-level UN Convention on Biodiversity in Brazil, just as the Convention was convening, and the global moratorium on Terminator seeds was upheld -- perhaps in some small measure because of the constraint this article placed on Canadian negotiators.
This example is symptomatic of a much larger and more controversial issue. As I write, the public interest in unanswered questions about September 11, 2001, is exponentially rising, day by day, into millions of hits on Google. Search results from 9/11 + conspiracy, 9/11 + "controlled demolition", 9/11 + "loose change", and 9/11 + fraud, are doubling every 3 weeks.
Simply by Googling 9/11 itself produces over 200 million hits. Of the first 20 ranked websites -- which are ranked mostly by popularity -- fully one-half belong to the "9/11 truth movement". The searches are thus split down the middle -- those which hit the official (White House Commission) version, and those which hit alternative Internet-based versions.
In the last two weeks, there have been 3 advances into the mainstream media from previously alternative versions regarding the events of September 11th. Be ready for a possible surge of information requests, following:
San Francisco Chronicle, March 29th
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2006/03/29/notes032906.DTL
New York Magazine, March 27/06
http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/16464/index.html
http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/16464/index8.html,
and, on March 22nd, the first emergence into mainstream, Charlie Sheen on
CNN's Shhowbiz Tonight, which is available online at http://stoplying.ca/
Follow the bloggers to http://blogsearch.google.com/ -- enter 9/11, and witness the hour-by-hour submissions of the people who want to know.
Check out the Chomsky-like Dr. David Ray Griffin, the acclaimed US philosopher/logician and process theologian whose seminal works on 9-11 have never been reviewed in the mainstream media. Check his CV -- at http://www.ctr4process.org/about/CoDirectors/drg_cv.pdf -- which lists 30 authored/edited books, and over 150 academic articles. Link to his treatise "The New Pearl Harbor" on amazon.com and see the 193 book reviews that have been penned by ordinary people looking for truth.
We librarians are more able than many to determine trends in world information seeking -- and sometimes, information impoverishment -- via analysis of Internet-based activities. This very fact lends responsiblity to our profession to be prepared and ready for what people need to know -- people, everywhere, who are seeking to fulfill their responsibility as informed citizens of democratic nations.
Elizabeth Woodworth
Writer/Novelist/Professional Librarian
British Columbia, Canada
(This article may be freely linked to or downloaded, if the author is acknowledged.)
I am a recently retired public health librarian, of 30 years duration, who is researching Web use statistics to analyse what the world public is searching for on the Internet. I have undertaken this project in view of the fact that mainstream media lacks coverage in relation to certain kinds of events.
For example, a recently published article by myself in the Toronto Star (Canada's largest daily) at (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1142549411996), was the first article in the mainstream media to draw attention to the Canadian Government stance on Terminator seeds. This article was forwarded to the Canadian delegation at the recent high-level UN Convention on Biodiversity in Brazil, just as the Convention was convening, and the global moratorium on Terminator seeds was upheld -- perhaps in some small measure because of the constraint this article placed on Canadian negotiators.
This example is symptomatic of a much larger and more controversial issue. As I write, the public interest in unanswered questions about September 11, 2001, is exponentially rising, day by day, into millions of hits on Google. Search results from 9/11 + conspiracy, 9/11 + "controlled demolition", 9/11 + "loose change", and 9/11 + fraud, are doubling every 3 weeks.
Simply by Googling 9/11 itself produces over 200 million hits. Of the first 20 ranked websites -- which are ranked mostly by popularity -- fully one-half belong to the "9/11 truth movement". The searches are thus split down the middle -- those which hit the official (White House Commission) version, and those which hit alternative Internet-based versions.
In the last two weeks, there have been 3 advances into the mainstream media from previously alternative versions regarding the events of September 11th. Be ready for a possible surge of information requests, following:
San Francisco Chronicle, March 29th
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2006/03/29/notes032906.DTL
New York Magazine, March 27/06
http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/16464/index.html
http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/16464/index8.html,
and, on March 22nd, the first emergence into mainstream, Charlie Sheen on
CNN's Shhowbiz Tonight, which is available online at http://stoplying.ca/
Follow the bloggers to http://blogsearch.google.com/ -- enter 9/11, and witness the hour-by-hour submissions of the people who want to know.
Check out the Chomsky-like Dr. David Ray Griffin, the acclaimed US philosopher/logician and process theologian whose seminal works on 9-11 have never been reviewed in the mainstream media. Check his CV -- at http://www.ctr4process.org/about/CoDirectors/drg_cv.pdf -- which lists 30 authored/edited books, and over 150 academic articles. Link to his treatise "The New Pearl Harbor" on amazon.com and see the 193 book reviews that have been penned by ordinary people looking for truth.
We librarians are more able than many to determine trends in world information seeking -- and sometimes, information impoverishment -- via analysis of Internet-based activities. This very fact lends responsiblity to our profession to be prepared and ready for what people need to know -- people, everywhere, who are seeking to fulfill their responsibility as informed citizens of democratic nations.
Elizabeth Woodworth
Writer/Novelist/Professional Librarian
British Columbia, Canada
(This article may be freely linked to or downloaded, if the author is acknowledged.)
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
9/11 Divides: Two opposing realities haunt America
A growing phenomenon in the United States, Canada, and Britain, is that the everyday reality and identity of individual people is markedly different from reality as portrayed by the mainstream media.
This phenomenon applies to commercial advertising, to entertainment and sports, to political coverage, and to the news. Perhaps the most striking example of this situation can be seen from a thorough examination of the difference between what people saw and heard on 9/11, and the official account that was finally commissioned 441 days after the event.
Very little of the evidence from 9/11 has penetrated the mainstream media. For example, most people have never heard of WTC-7, a 47-storey building two blocks from the towers, whose controlled demolition at 5:20 pm on 9/11 occurred at freefall speed into its own footprint. This can be seen at http://www.wtc7.net/videos.html on CBS footage.
It is staggering how much of the evidence from that day was seized and made inaccessible to the public. For example, the blueprints for the World Trade Center are being withheld from the public domain. Why should this be necessary?
This alone is enough to stimulate curiosity. Accordingly, a Google search of "9/11" brings up over 200,000,000 hits. Half of the top 20 most consulted websites are seeking more information on 9/11, which indicates that the country is divided right down the middle on the official story.
In view of the seriousness of this matter, and in light of public interest, how can it be that the most scholarly work questioning the evidence, "The New Pearl Harbor" (2004), by American author Dr. David Ray Griffin -- a highly respected process philosopher and theologian -- has never been reviewed by a mainstream newspaper?
How can the media have ignored Griffin's book, when the US Treasury is in staggering debt ($133,000 per family) over a war which owes its justification to the official story on 9/11? The people of the United States and of the world need to be able to judge for themselves what happened that day, so that their own realities can be formed on the basis of open and tangible evidence.
Calling now for such evidence is a slate of top politicians, economists, and leaders listed at http://www.wanttoknow.info/050908insidejob911
The Physics911 Scientific Panel Investigating Nine-Eleven has prepared a list of authoritative weblinks where ongoing research is available, at http://www.wanttoknow.info/050908insidejob911
Until this deeply divisive matter has been cleared up, the world will continue to live with two realities. The worst part of this is that the blanketing, impenetrable mainstream network is the controlling reality, whether its offerings are based on truth or not.
A hold should be placed on all life-threatening military actions in the MIddle East until one consistent reality has emerged from an independent international investigation. Then the shame that is being felt by millions of Americans who have begun to doubt and suspect their government can lift, and self-respect take its place.
Equipped with knowledge and self-respect, the West could begin to rebuild its vision of a world based on realistic, informed and democratic objectives. The planet and its occupants have so much to gain!
Elizabeth Woodworth
Writer/Novelist/Professional Librarian
This phenomenon applies to commercial advertising, to entertainment and sports, to political coverage, and to the news. Perhaps the most striking example of this situation can be seen from a thorough examination of the difference between what people saw and heard on 9/11, and the official account that was finally commissioned 441 days after the event.
Very little of the evidence from 9/11 has penetrated the mainstream media. For example, most people have never heard of WTC-7, a 47-storey building two blocks from the towers, whose controlled demolition at 5:20 pm on 9/11 occurred at freefall speed into its own footprint. This can be seen at http://www.wtc7.net/videos.html on CBS footage.
It is staggering how much of the evidence from that day was seized and made inaccessible to the public. For example, the blueprints for the World Trade Center are being withheld from the public domain. Why should this be necessary?
This alone is enough to stimulate curiosity. Accordingly, a Google search of "9/11" brings up over 200,000,000 hits. Half of the top 20 most consulted websites are seeking more information on 9/11, which indicates that the country is divided right down the middle on the official story.
In view of the seriousness of this matter, and in light of public interest, how can it be that the most scholarly work questioning the evidence, "The New Pearl Harbor" (2004), by American author Dr. David Ray Griffin -- a highly respected process philosopher and theologian -- has never been reviewed by a mainstream newspaper?
How can the media have ignored Griffin's book, when the US Treasury is in staggering debt ($133,000 per family) over a war which owes its justification to the official story on 9/11? The people of the United States and of the world need to be able to judge for themselves what happened that day, so that their own realities can be formed on the basis of open and tangible evidence.
Calling now for such evidence is a slate of top politicians, economists, and leaders listed at http://www.wanttoknow.info/050908insidejob911
The Physics911 Scientific Panel Investigating Nine-Eleven has prepared a list of authoritative weblinks where ongoing research is available, at http://www.wanttoknow.info/050908insidejob911
Until this deeply divisive matter has been cleared up, the world will continue to live with two realities. The worst part of this is that the blanketing, impenetrable mainstream network is the controlling reality, whether its offerings are based on truth or not.
A hold should be placed on all life-threatening military actions in the MIddle East until one consistent reality has emerged from an independent international investigation. Then the shame that is being felt by millions of Americans who have begun to doubt and suspect their government can lift, and self-respect take its place.
Equipped with knowledge and self-respect, the West could begin to rebuild its vision of a world based on realistic, informed and democratic objectives. The planet and its occupants have so much to gain!
Elizabeth Woodworth
Writer/Novelist/Professional Librarian
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)