Cinco de Mayo, Courtesy of the French

(City of Puebla, Mexico. North view, toward the Malinche Volcano)

East of Mexico City lies the landlocked state of Puebla, now formally named Heróica Puebla de Zaragoza. On May 5, 1862, La Puebla de los Angeles, Town of the Angels, hosted the scene of an arrogant Napoléon III and the Imperial French Army's comeuppance by a poorly supplied yet tenacious Mexican Army. At the time, America was a two nation country dragging the southern part back into reunification one bloody battlefield at a time with no real interest in Mexico's internal strife. Besides, America considered France a friend. The people of Pueblo harbored no such illusions. The whole American friendship thing exited with the idea that an emperor or monarchal rule went against what the young war torn nation had fought against before the French republicans lopped off Marie Antoinette's head. Mexican men & women fought off a better supplied Second Empire army that had a disticnt advantage of twice as much manpower to thwart the colonization of central Mexico. It took six years before France threw in the towel when they went in expecting an early crushing of dissent victory after installing Emperor Napoleon's puppet as a Mexican Emperor, the soon to be executed Archduke Ferdinand Maximillian of Austria by Benito Juarez's order.

Photo of escaramuza - women in the Mexican Revolution - courtesy Nelvin C. Cepeda/Union Tribune

In a turnabout induced by time and immigration, Cinco de Mayo is now very popular in the United States but remains a regional phenomenon in Mexico. Pueblo's battle did not decide the outcome, but what a morale booster that Emperor Napoléon III and the 8,000 French soldiers could be beaten by the few people under the command of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. The Execution of Maximillian I (and only) of Mexico was captured by the renowned Spanish painter, Édouard Manet in a painting of the ame name. In the 21st century, Cinco de Mayo captures the American imagination while giving those of Mexican descent a means to celebrate a part of its rich heritage.

French interventionism, the first time, went under the anglicized rubric of the Pastry War (1838 -1839) goes by the name, Primera Intervención Francesa en México, in Spanish. The word croissant does not imediately conjur up images of Mexico, but entire battles and many nations including the Republic of Texas became charbroiled over a French baker demanding payment for a ruined shop in Mexico. A French blockade ensued with Americans eventually aiding the Europeans resulting in eventually bringing the venerable Santa Anna out of retirement.

Cinco de Mayo is now also a cause to celebrate Mexican cuisine and drinks. In a spirit of patriotism the Chiles en nogada uses the three colors of the Mexican flag. Food influences allow people to go forward presenting each with treasures from their own culture. The margarita enjoys a variety of flavors, yet for a few of the orange flavored liqueurs a mexico product with a French label Patrón Citrónge, or the imported Cointreau , blue curaçao produces the stunning blue margarita. Yum. Add a little mariachi music and the celebration is ON!




It was setting my teeth on edge that the most prominent authors on Cinco de Mayo were Anglo. So after looking here is a great history for the younder set, Cinco de Mayo:Yesterday and Today, from Maria Christina Urrutia and Rebecca Orozco.

China's Two Face Policy

China, China, China. With over 5 millenniums years worth of experience in the political arts, yet the lesson seems lost again about saying one thing and doing another. The Peoples Republic of China's political wunderkinds are having a collective communist mind melt over being exposed in a Pentagon report to Congress detailing their military aims and growing capabilities. China wants a more flowery emphasis placed on their economic prosperity and growing private sector. In light of their boom and owning the loan papers on a multitude of US debt, China is making a loud case to increase their role in the International monetary Fund (IMF). Popcorn & MRE's all around, this is going to take armies of diplomats to hash out between two nuclear superpowers with space satellites. (Reuters)

After 5 Chinese ships hemmed in a US warship, USNS Impeccable in the South China Sea, plowed through A Tibet-belongs-to China annex anniversary without the number killed last year by the military and rolled over the Dalai Lama's freedom rhetoric, more joint military exercises with Russia, obligatory perennial warnings to Taiwan & an interfering USA that they will backup a One China policy at the point of really big guns and missiles, now with the cyber warfare the Canadians caught from deep inside the land of one time zone happening to 1295 computers in over 100 countries, pulling the camouflage over a hypersensitive world's eyes is tough to brazen out. Canada's report from The Information Warfare Monitor, "Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network" does not attribute the malware directly to the Chinese state. The US military already had suspicous hacker activity attributed to the Chinese at the Pentagon almost eighteen months ago. Those magisterial moments during the 2008 Olympics are over. It leaves China unencumbered by world community threats to showcase its military might on center stage. Only the US military preemptively released their annual assessment on the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Dalai Lama's office raised suspicions about being hacked.

Computers -- including machines at NATO, governments and embassies -- are infected with software that lets attackers gain complete control of them, according to the reports. One was issued by the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies in conjunction with the Ottawa, Canada-based think tank The SecDev Group; the second came from the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory.

Researchers have dubbed the network GhostNet. The network can not only search a computer but see and hear the people using it, according to the Canadian report.

"GhostNet is capable of taking full control of infected computers, including searching and downloading specific files, and covertly operating attached devices, including microphones and web cameras," the report says. (Internet map - portion)

Tuesday, President Obama leaves Washington DC for the G-20 Summit hosted in a protest-ready and poorer London after already having words with China's Ambassador to the US over US Naval ships in international waters. The Chinese ambassador made sure the press knew there were concerns about the US currency amidst a global crisis. Warfare, cyber and otherwise, is definitely practiced economically. China is spreading the wealth around and making more inroads and cyber tracks in the Western Hemisphere. France & China have a frosty relationship after President Sarkozy took a meeting with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Meanwhile, Thailand is pretty pissed about their computers while Austrailia is defending its ties at home with China. This summit will be like a giant Hollywood party where people were married to each other, divorced and married former friends while everybody is ensuring all is truly cordial because the cameras are on.

President Hu Jintao will warmly greet President Obama. The pictures will be pretty and the words carefully chosen to convey maximum strength on both sides as they speak as if at a tennis match. China will hear about the lack of government safety control in their manufacturing and food production environments, the US will get slammed over the health of the Dollar, return serve on the artificial price pegging of the Yuan with a volley back on the stupidity of Iraq, followed by the human rights issues in Burma and Darfur with pointed questions about China's designs on Latin America, followed by talks about climate change with the US saying new rules. And that's just Secretary Hillary Clinton's part in the meeting. President Obama will hear much mutterings on the scale and scope of the US military industrial complex's sales of armaments and delivery systems. China claims they are nowhere near able to keep up on that military scale. Um, yeah... just the end user better hope they have some quality control in the stuff they get from a booming China.



Mixing modernity with the mastery of the ancient eastern tradition makes for compelling reading about China's geopolitical growth spurts. Ralph D. Sawyer chronicles the inside political gamesmanships Chinese generals do on each other and other nonconventional means of projecting military might. China is not adverse to using every tool at their command and this China expert shows us how many means and methods they have already used in The Tao of Deception: Unorthodox Warfare in Historic and Modern China.

An Obama National Security Council

Since 1947 amidst Harry S Truman's presidency, the National Security Council (NSC) was born out of the military and intelligence interagency disorganization post WWII. In 1949, the NSC became the sole province of the president. By law, the National Security Act, this creature exclusive to the White House the NSC remains unmonitored by Congress and operates as a president chooses in matters pertaining to national security and foreign policy with some mandated participation. A National Security Adviser (NSA) is appointed by the president. The role oversees portfolios of regional or specific interest depending on the president's choice and mitigates between major cabinet officers (principals) and ideas that may have jurisdictional overlap. The real power is the Deputies meetings or the surrogates sent by the main principals to get into the fine detail in the conference rooms allocated off the White House's semi-secret Sit Room.

A six foot five inch four star combat tested former marine commandant, Jim Jones, is the President Obama selection. The President-Elect has authorized Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff, Greg Craig as Counsel to the president and Lawrence Summers in his capacity as Assistant to the President fon Economic Policy to participate in the 2009 United States National Security Council. In spite of being part of Bush's war council, Robert gates remains atop the military industrial complex as the SecDef and a top spot on the NSC battling Clinton among others for resources and policy supremacy. General Jones is the lead arbitrator before it gets to the president's desk.

Sometimes the president is forced to "redo" his NSC in the middle of a term. Why? Because they have usually committed a terrible wrong that leaves the nation and the world aghast. Not likely one might say in Obama world -snicker. In sixty years, NOT one president escaped unscathed from not watching the NSC more closely. The bet is when, not if, Obama gets into trouble with his. History beckons and Obama's name will either be in smaller font or writ large depending on what the issue is he wrangles with and gambles on the wrong person. That's when he's going to need all the political friends he made because he will build up a reservoir of Goodwill. He is smart like that.

In the White House there are 5,000 square feet of first rate technology including cell sensors in the cieling and the best military minds dedicated to crisis management and day to day intelligence activities. CNN's show The Situation Room is named after this collection of rooms inside the White House. The Sit Room is where the president discusses domestic emergencies, planning for pending military action or response to a global crisis. Those familiar with Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing TV show will immediately recognize the room. It was beautifully rehabbed during George W. Bush's 2nd term in 2007 with wainscoting lower on sliding padded walls to receive better transmission of secure communications than the prior mahogany covered walls did during the Clinton administration. Three secure conference rooms, plastic phone booths for calls and direct communication with Air Force One increase the Sit Room complex's functionality and capabilities. There are over 33 LCD monitors and 32 hookups that allow multiple simultaneous conference call capability. All that fancy hardware is needed to manage the threats and the fast growing cyber security incursions.

The NSC has a collection of people considered principals. Getting on the permanent principals list is at the sole discretion of the president. One ofthe layers below the principals is made up of their second in commands or in DC parlance, Deputy blah blah Undersecretary of the Molehill region.Usually, the presidents are the Main Man, Vice president, Secretary of Defense,Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence or the CIA Director, and the National Security Adviser who chairs the meeting and directs traffic. Condoleeza Rice was George Bush's 1st term NSA and she was awful. Regan's second term guy who waded in and cleaned up the Iran Contra mess, was Colin Powell. Whoever gets that chair in an Obama Administration needs to be the consummate professional that cannot be pushed around by the big guns on the NSC.

Richard Clarke, the upstanding hard edged intel NSC guy sets the scene here:

On the ground level of the West Wing of the White House, a dozen men and women trickle into the wood-paneled Situation Room. They balance thick briefing books and cups of hot coffee from the White House Mess next door. The meeting's chairman, a member of the National Security Council staff, brings to order this gathering of the Counterterrorism Security Group, the committee that coordinates U.S. counterterrorism efforts. Behind and above his chair is the seal of the president of the United States.


"All right, let's get going," the NSC man intones. "President Obama wants a high-level game plan for counterterrorism efforts in 2009. First, we need the intelligence picture." The NSC staffer turns to the woman sitting to his left, who works in the National Counterterrorism Center.

"Well, as we said in the recent National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism, we had a break for a while after we smashed the al-Qaida sanctuary in Afghanistan after 9/11," she begins. "But now al-Qaida has reconstituted itself in the Pakistani tribal areas, right along the border with Afghanistan. The Pakistani army tries every once in a while to rein them in, but essentially, they're just too weak to gain control of the Wild West border areas. Al-Qaida is busy training terrorists up there, including Europeans and Asians, people who could slip into the United States without arousing suspicion. And al-Qaida is also developing another sanctuary in Somalia, where their local allies have been taking over Somali cities. It's not a soothing picture. We could see al-Qaida attacks in 2009 on the Arabian Peninsula, in Europe, even here at home. But of course, we have no actionable intelligence pointing to a specific plot."

Back to the trouble president's get in. Nobody likes telling a president no. Harry Truman Korea, Dwight Eisenhower is the best to date that pulled together an NSC that was stellar, but a certain pilot was shot down while spying over Russia and trainers were parachuted into Indochina in a former French colony. There was the NSC's fingerprints all over the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Kissinger & Pol Pot among others, China, Iran Contra, WHIG or Bush's White House Iraq Group an off shoot of the NSC that set up to market the war. Time will tell whether the error will be a combination of haste and sloppiness or a personal hubris on the part of his team or horrible circumstance that will bring the NSC to the public's attention in an Obama administration.

The only expert to write a book with scholarly dimensions but wickedly funny asides on the NSA came in a truly fascinating 2006 book from David Rothkopf. Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power traces the NSA from gestation to now with a look at the internecine connections amongst those who serve the public good (usually) inside the NSA.

This part of The Transition Series to the presidency of Barack Obama. (please not the posts at the link above are stored by date)

Norway Top, Iran Near Bottom on Gender

The constitutional monarchy of Norway and home of the Nobel Prize stewards leads the world with the smallest gender gap. Iran is a dark ages basement dweller at 116 out of 130 on gender equality for the 18th largest sized country on Earth. The world's number one super power democracy is solidly behind Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and New Zealand coming in at #27. Sadly, that's an improvement over last year. Persian and Iranian civilization has been around in some form since before 4000 BC. The USA only gave suffrage to women in 1920 with a constitutional amendment passing by one vote. Since the 21st millennium began, Norway had a firm grip on the top spot in human development with an enlightened universal Scandinavian welfare model. Just to get to the top spot Norway had to move up just two places on their Nordic neighbors.

The UK came 13th and slipped from 11th place last year while France was among those countries whose ranking rose sharply, from 51st to 15th place helped by gains in economic participation and political empowerment.

Syria, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia all fell in the ranking and showed a drop in overall scores. Progress in closing the gap is not only "possible" but can be achieved in a relatively short space of time said the forum.

The index surveyed economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival.

Women in senior leadership roles in government, business and other organization needs to happen in more nations but the bugaboo of diversifying escapes rational discussion and implementation year after year. Looks bleak in the United Kingdom as the pay gap widens as the UK falls two places to number 13 on the World Economic Forum's Flobal Gender gap index, especially for women with the top job in a business. Canada took a greased toboggan down Mount Robson sliding to an ungainly stop 13 spots down from their prior perch. Turkey considered by those in Bush's state department as the most moderate Muslim nation sparkles in infamy at 123 out of 130 as the formerly secular nation grows ever more rigidly conservative in it politics. Don't hold your breath for the Bush guys to mention that out loud either as Turkey's air space is a vital American interest.

Women in the US still have trouble reaching equal status and equal pay. In Missouri, three female anchors are suing their former television station for tossing them off the air while their balder, fatter and squinting male counterparts got to stay on the tube. Gender bias shows up in a multitude of areas while significant accomplishments receive noteworthy attention. The United States military broke the so-called brass ceiling pinning a fourth star on General Ann E. Dunwoody's dress uniform. The 55 year old is the top commander of the Army Matériel Command unit which supplies all soldiers with weapons and gear. She is a master jumper and which led to her creds as the 82nd Airborne's first female battalion commander at Fort Bragg.

"It was clear to me that my Army experience was just going to be a two-year detour en route to my fitness profession," she added. "So when asked, `Ann, did you ever think you were going to be a general officer, to say nothing about a four-star?' I say, `Not in my wildest dreams.'

"There is no one more surprised than I — except, of course, my husband. You know what they say, `Behind every successful woman there is an astonished man.'"

Too bad that is has such the ring of truth - still in the USA and everywhere else...

In a story of intolerance from a temperate religion comes the story of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She fought against the cultural norms on three continents suffering horrible deprivations along the way. While I may not agree with all of her political views, her courage and intellect are diamonds of the first water and her story is the beginning of her legend. She titled the book strongly, Infidel. A Great Read!

Russia In A Missile Snit

(Maxim Shipenkov/European Pressphoto Agency)

Putin prodigy, President Medvedev read his prepared script to test America's resolve with perfect aplomb in front of invited guests and press at the Kremlin. It was really intended for an audience of one, President-elect Barack Obama. From St George's Hall the State of the Nation extravaganza delivered tough talk and threats of radio jamming as the ABM or antiballistic missile system encroaches on Russian military power. The Putinites remain ticked off about the long standing issue of the Unites States placing interceptor missiles in Eastern Europe, remember Poland, which they consider their back yard. Except, the countries involved have full fledged members ship in US-led NATO, which is the chicken bone really stuck in their craw. (Guneev Sergey/Bloomberg News)

That Russian threat came dripping with honey:

Medvedev made similar comments in his address: "Let me stress that we don't have problems with the American people. We don't have an inborn anti-Americanism. And we hope that our partners, the new U.S. administration, will make a choice in favor of full-fledged relationswith Russia."

This is the first salvo less than 24 hours after Barack Obama's historic election as the 44th president of United States that also goes by the nickname, Leader of the Free World. Dimitry, showing no diplomacy skills, sent Barack Obama an old fashioned telegraph acknowledging his accomplishment by saying he looked forward to a constructive dialogue. How quaint. No mention of the new realities in America's political landscape made the cut into the final draft of his speech after scheduling it twice before. Kind of interesting the stinging speech actually gets delivered the day after the US election. President Medvedev, a tender 43 year old rookie and his swinging Svengali, Vladimir, threw the first mud pie by baldly stated their belief that America is responsible for the global financial decimation while crassly calling America selfish in its foreign policy aims. Obama's historic election win was major league downplayed in a tightly state controlled Russian media.

Ministers of much lower rank spoke a tad more cordially of solving problems together. But the ominous utterances of the Russian president did not focus on cash but weapons of war. A Iskander-M surface to surface ballistic missile deployment to the Baltic area of Kaliningrad is a direct counter to the interceptor missiles the US places in Poland and the Czech Republic. Good thing Barack President-elect Obama got his first super double secret spies are here doing this in the dark meeting today. Kaliningrad had a starring role in the Cold War saga as a containment zone on the foremost outer ring of defending Russia with ample amounts of military matériel and personnel.

It is unclear whether the Iskanders to be deployed in Kaliningrad will have a nuclear payload.

Analysts say the Iskanders will probably be positioned with Russia's 152nd missile brigade, near Chernyakhovsk. Medvedev said on Wednesday that radio jamming from Kaliningrad would also be used to disrupt the US anti-missile system.

The president said plans to disband, by 2010, three missile regiments based in Russia's Kaluga region near Moscow had been cancelled in respond to Washington's anti-missile scheme.

While American pols have been immersed in The Obama Epic, former president Vladimir has stealthily moved to position himself to legally retake the Russian presidency. Instead of Barack Obama staring down Dimitry Medevedev, who gave an aggressive tough Russian national security speech, he could find himself face to face with the steely-eyed jdo chopping Putin, whose soul a junior George W. Bush completely misread, in less than a year in a Kremlin power play to gain Putin approval of two thirds of the State Duma. Prime Minister Putin, the former KB spymaster, looks at the missiles in his back yard as an act of war. He's also on the move making nice with Italy's three time peacock Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, getting a head start on an Obama Administration as Medvedev travels to the South Caucasus to follow up on Putin's leadoff discussions with him as well. Russia was not on the list of 9 world leaders Obama spoke with today to thank for their congratulatory calls.

Marshall L. Goldman writes an account of Russia's mounting economic and energy power in Petrostate: Putin, Power, and the New Russia. Putin systematically acquires the power under state control while leveraging its oil for more cachet around the world in a series of intrigues and political knife fights to control the remaining Russian oligarchs.

Pakistan Powder Keg, Musharraf Impeachment Threat

Pakistan's ruling parliament made the I-word, impeachment, threat to former general President Musharraf implicit. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi repeated, resign or watch us strip you of what's left of your coalition's power publicly in less than a week. Multi-tiered fascination abounds. Musharraf anointed himself president in a military coup, while the Pakistani army essentially says we do one coup per guy. Musharraf used his freebie already and the army is currently spouting noble words on how this is a civilian situation. Enfeebled President Pervez Musharraf who pinned on his general stars and knife edged ironed his army outfit for the last time six months ago for public consumption, is trying cut a deal with anybody who will listen as the ground erodes beneath his feet, Wyl E. Coyote style. No ability to use hard power renders Musharraf impotent in today's Pakistan, and for the worsening situation in Kashmir, even for protecting sporting events and their players. On cue, Al Qaeda's Zawahari utters his two cents.

However, Mills told The Press newspaper that nothing the taskforce or Lawson said had allayed the players' fears, adding that the situation in Pakistan was changing daily and had worsened even after the delegation had visited New Zealand.

He conceded the security plans were impressive on paper and some of the best he had seen.

"But the fact remains they are untested and we have doubts whether Pakistan could deliver on those plans," he said.

The foreign policy inept Bush Administration ensured the US government had all its chips in the "democratically" elected Musharraf's presidency. They doubled down on Musharraf being able to quell dissent like they did with a fake riot in Florida the US press hyped and hoped that if they just believed Musharraf would just muscle his way through this. The problem is, who exactly has control of Pakistan's nukes now and who exactly will have control after Musharraf has all his possessions eradicated from the halls of power. India and the US are both deeply concerned with a resurgence of al Qaeda in Pakistan, an up tick in religious violence in Kashmir from inside Indian controlled areas over a toilet installation at a sacred shrine and from the border, Afghanistan's paralysis of a surge of Taliban fighters and policies and Pakistan's adroit and powerful intelligence agency, ISI, getting even cozier with covered in US, India & China's money, an ascendant Saudi Arabia. Bush has no friends with real power or diplomatic network in place to work through the issues. Condi Rice gets State Department frequent flyer miles, not progress. (AP photo/Yasmin in Kashmir)

Bajaur, like other tribal district, is believed to provide sanctuaries for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters launching cross-border attacks on US-led international forces in Afghanistan.

Let's see, Russia is busy slapping around upstart Georgia while Vladimir Putin spit in Bush's eye at every turn after Bush claimed to have seen Pooty-Poot's soul when gazing deeply into his eyes. Notice, Putin was at the Olympics, not the president, but Putin exited after the opening ceremonies to act as Russia's Commander in Chief. President Musharraf suffered a loss of his tattered prestige earlier this year with the assassination of popular political rival Benazir Bhutto, the spectacle of departing the former prime minister, the declaration of Martial law, the firing of the Pakistani Supreme Court and the jailing of dissidents while the middle class's power is out during a heat wave. The kicker is Musharraf was seen as a key voice of settling violence in the Kashmir region. How Bush like as other areas see rise in religious violence as Musharraf plans his next steps.

Local newspapers said that Taliban militants from the neighbouring North Waziristan tribal zone had entered Kurram to back the Sunni tribes involved in the fighting, now in its 12th day.

Residents said Sunni tribesmen torched three villages belonging to Shiite tribes and both sides used rockets, heavy machine guns and mortars in the fierce clashes.

"In today's and yesterday's clashes at least 23 people have been killed on both sides and 28 others were injured," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Pakistan is a powder keg atop long range nuclear missiles with a shifting alliance three-way internal struggle between secular, fundamentalist religious forces and Sunni and Shi'a fighters for control of rural tribal villages. The fighting won't stop, even if Musharraf became the ex-president in the next five minutes, but somebody who is not a friend of the USA or India will have their hands on nuclear weapons while Bush frets about Iran & Iraq and Saudi Arabia, who don't yet have them. They have something else though, money to buy them or the technology.

Further critical reading can be found from a number of subject matter experts on the tangled ties between America, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. The Pakistani Army has never before been chronicled so well in Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army and the Wars Within from the scholarly author, Shuja Nawaz.

Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of A Nation comes from the best selling author expert, Ahmed Rashid, as he painstakingly charts how a dangerous Bush focus in Iraq ignored the larger context in southeast Asia where the real problems exist.

Invisibility for Muggles, Military or Trekkies?

As a means of science fiction war, Klingons and Romulans used cloaking devices for their space ships while a rare invisibility cloak was a priceless heirloom given from Death to Harry Potter. Real life scientists at UC Berkley have found a way, ok finally proved it, to bend light in the opposite direction to make objects disappear. Metamaterial culled from a manmade composite coalition of silver and magnesium flouride makes light bend rendering an optical illusion of redirecting light past three dimensional objects, making invisibility possible for the first time. Kinda really cool. Imagine future school kids coming to class with just their legs showing or saying they were not late, just temporarily invisible. It would be an interesting, albeit short lived, prank.

It is more likely the Harry Potter version of scarce and rare will be the order of the day. Beaming people in a quantum fashion was ordinary technology, making Invisibility ubiquitous in all of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek franchises. Nanotechnology seems brilliantly positioned to take massive advantage of these new metamaterials that have to be tinier than a wavelength or a slice of a split end of human hair. The math in the negative refractive index is key to making the light bend backward or not follow the right-hand rule.

"Of course cloaking captures everybody's attention, but these papers aren't [just] about cloaking," said Xiang Zhang, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and head of the research teams publishing related papers in two different journals this week.

"[The studies] are about the ability to engineer these material properties that never exist in nature. With that ability one can do many things, and cloaking is only one of them."

Such materials could also boost the power of microchips and antennas and allow the creation of "superlenses" that could image objects smaller than the wavelength of light, the study authors report.

This is a wow week for physicists and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is about to go on line experimenting on the God Particle theory while US physicists and the National Science Foundation are looking at next generation uses for metamaterials for microscopic scales as new variations are developed that get a bit more obvious to the eye. This latest discovery also fires the imagination of science fiction writers who have a measure of detail that lends credibility to the science developed in the 1940's.

The NSF helped support research into both metamaterials. Additionally, the U.S. Army Research Office helped support the work reported in Nature, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research helped fund the project described in Science. (5 year old CNN story/ photo)

The applications of larger scale invisibility are immense from Orwellian tragic usage for government or rich Peeping Toms to a means to give advantages to military or black ops in intelligence services or law enforcement. Stealth technology taken to new heights, depths, widths we won't know about because ramifications won't be seen until its far too late. There are no rules of law that encompass the scope as science outpaces shades of gray legalisms.

John Edwards, no not THAT one, the technology reporter writes The Geeks of War outlining the possible and probable uses of new applications of science. Some bland and innocuous others not so much.

Or in a master's hand, Michio Kaku, brings the possibilities in Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific exploration into the World of Phaser Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel. Just love this.