Election Site

Drug-resistant TB on the rise

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:51:38 -0700

It accounts for at least 5% of all new cases and far more in some places, WHO says

Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times

A dangerous form of drug-resistant tuberculosis has reached its highest levels ever, accounting for at least 5 percent of all new TB cases worldwide, and 15 to 22 percent of new cases in parts of the former Soviet Union and China, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The WHO report, the first new survey of TB incidence in four years, estimates there are nearly 500,000 new cases of multidrug-resistant TB, commonly known as MDR-TB - about 5 percent of the 9 million total cases of TB each year. The highest rate was recorded in Baku, Azerbaijan, where 22.3 percent of all new cases were MDR. Rates of 14.8 percent or higher were also found in Moldova, the Donetsk province of Ukraine, the Tomsk province of the Russian Federation and in Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

MDR-TB also was found in a high proportion of cases in China's inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang regions.

In contrast, the highest rate reported in the 2004 survey was 14.2 percent in Kazakhstan.

Experts attributed the high incidence in those regions to poverty, congestion, alcoholism and stress form the dismantling of the Soviet Union.

Surprisingly low rates of drug-resistant strains were found throughout most of southern Africa, which has the highest rates of TB in the world - although many countries were unable to report data because of the lack of sophisticated laboratories to test for the variants.

Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO's Stop TB department, attributed the low incidence to the overall lack of treatment in the region. If the majority of people are not getting antibiotics, he said, the TB bacteria will not develop resistance to them.

"But with the more widespread use of rifampicin and other drugs (in recent years), the situation is going to go more quickly out of control because of the presence of HIV," which leaves victims much more susceptible to TB, he said.

Tuberculosis is an infection of the lungs characterized by fever, weight loss, night sweats and coughing up blood.

The disease is spread primarily through microscopic droplets released when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks.

The MDR variety of the disease is resistant to two first-line antibiotics, isoniazid and rifampicin. Treatment can take as long as two years, compared to six months for conventional TB. The drugs used are more toxic and 100 times more expensive.

An even more serious form, known as extensively drug-resistant TB, commonly called XDR-TB, is resistant to both of those antibiotics and to fluoroquinolones and any of the injectable antibiotics, such as kanamycin or capreomycin. Treatment may require surgical removal of part of the lungs, and some strains are virtually untreatable.

The WHO survey found that XDR-TB has now been detected in 45 countries.

Drug-resistant strains of TB develop when patients do not complete their course of treatment, allowing mutated versions of the bacterium to emerge. These new strains can then be passed from person to person, just like the older ones.

There were 111 cases of MDR-TB and three cases of XDR-TB in the United States in 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Only a few years ago, scientists dismissed drug-resistant TB as a major threat. Most thought it could occur only in HIV-positive patients whose immune systems were suppressed, and they also believed that the development of resistance lowered the pathogenicity of the bacterium and impaired its ability to spread.

Now, Raviglione said, both of those ideas have been shown to be wrong.

The major problem in improving control is money. The WHO estimates that $4.8 billion a year is needed for overall control of TB in low- and middle-income countries, with about $1 billion of that directed toward drug-resistant strains.

But only half that amount is available, according to the report.

"The threat created by TB drug resistance demands that we fill these gaps," said Dr. Marcos Espinal, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, a network of more than 500 international organizations dedicated to eliminating TB.

Article at: sfgate.com

Edwards Bows Out, Passes Charge of Ending Poverty to His Rivals

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:04:56 -0700

Sounding a call to restore the �great promise of this country,� John Edwards bowed out of the presidential race Wednesday afternoon in New Orleans, ending a spirited underdog bid that was watered down by his distant third finish in the South Carolina primary on Saturday.

In his closing remarks, Edwards underscored his central campaign themes of lifting up the working class, expanding health care, ending the Iraq war and striving �to make the two Americas one.�

�It�s time for me to step aside so that history can blaze its path,� Edwards said. �We do not know who will take the final steps to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but what we do know is that our Democratic Party will make history.�

Article at: youdecide08.foxnews.com

Giuliani Endorsement Gives McCain Visible Boost Going Into GOP Debate

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:51:34 -0700

Rudy Giuliani formally dropped his presidential bid and endorsed John McCain Wednesday, setting up the Arizona senator with valuable support and big press heading into the GOP primary debate in California.

Giuliani pledged to campaign with McCain wherever he is needed, and touted his former rival as an �American hero� and �the most qualified candidate to be the next commander in chief of the United States.�

Giuliani spoke at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., where the Republican debate was being held just two hours later.

Article at: youdecide08.foxnews.com

McCain Triumphs in Hard-Fought Florida Primary

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:34:07 -0700

John McCain pulled out a win in a squeaker of a Republican presidential primary contest in Florida Tuesday, besting archrival Mitt Romney and leaving strong indications that Rudy Giuliani is preparing to abandon his race and back McCain.

Hillary Clinton also handily won the largely ceremonial Democratic contest. The primary was the last major opportunity for candidates to pick up momentum going into Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, when 24 states hold primaries and caucuses for both parties.

With 94 percent of precincts reporting, McCain had 36 percent and Romney 31 percent, followed by Rudy Giuliani with 15 percent, Mike Huckabee with 13 percent and Ron Paul with 3 percent.

Among the Democrats, Clinton had 50 percent in Florida, followed by Barack Obama at 33 percent and John Edwards at 15 percent, with 93 percent of precincts reporting.

The winner-take-all Florida race hands McCain the state�s 57 delegates to the GOP nominating convention. That�s half the delegates the state would have been given for this year�s convention but the Republican National Committee penalized the state for holding its primary ahead of Super Tuesday.

For the Republicans, the race marked the fiercest battle to date between McCain and Romney, who went after each other on issues ranging from the Iraq war to conservative credentials to taxes.

In his victory speech, McCain drove home several of the points that he tried to make to voters � promoting a strong national security, limited federal spending, a continuation of Ronald Reagan�s conservative legacy and his ability to defeat whoever is the Democratic nominee.

�Government must defend our nation�s security wisely and effectively because the cost of our defense is so dear to us, measured in losses so hard to bear in the heartbreak of so many families,� he said. �Government must respect our values because they are the true source of our strength and enforce the rule of law which distinguishes successful democracies from failed societies and is the first offense of freedom.�

Building on the confidence of a candidate with momentum, McCain spoke kindly of his opponents, calling Giuliani �an exceptional American leader� who is �an inspiration to me and millions of Americans.�

He also congratulated Romney�s supporters for putting up a tough fight.

�You fought hard for your candidate and the margin that separated us tonight surely isn�t big enough for me to brag about or you to despair,� he said.

But McCain added that he is pumped up ahead of the enormous Feb. 5 contest.

�I intend to win it and be the nominee of our party,� he said.

A disappointed Romney called McCain to offer his congratulations and told his supporters to hang in there.

�You guys are my heroes. You took this campaign from nowhere to the very top tier. You worked your hearts out, and you made me a contender. And for that, Ann and I and our family will be forever grateful. Thank you so very much,� the former Massachusetts governor said with his wife by his side.

�I�m sure that you are excited here this evening, but a little disappointed, as well,� he said before launching into a speech that continued his anti-Washington theme and touted his economic credentials

�Hard-working, innovative, risk-taking, family-oriented, God- fearing, freedom-loving American people have always been the source of America�s greatness, and they always will be. And so the right course for America isn�t to strengthen our government, but to strengthen our people. And to do that, we�re going to have to change Washington, and change will begin with us,� Romney said.

For Giuliani, a Florida win was considered critical. The former front-runner had bypassed all the other early voting states in favor of pursuing victory in Florida ahead of Feb. 5, but with each primary loss his poll numbers dropped.

Speaking to supporters Tuesday night, Giuliani sounded like a candidate who was ready to throw in the towel despite telling reporters that he is moving on to California Wednesday. Aides told FOX News that a departure was imminent.

�I believe that our party will be stronger as a result of the competition that we�re going through, but win or lose our work is not done because leaders dream of a better future and then they help to bring it into a reality,� he said at a campaign party.

�The responsibility of leadership does not end with a single campaign. If you believe in a cause it goes on and you continue to fight for it, and we will,� he said.

As for Huckabee, who hasn�t secured a win since the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3, he said he was just pleased for a strong showing in Florida.

�For those of you who think I would be discouraged � we�re gonna play all nine innings of this ball game,� he told supporters Tuesday night in St. Louis, where he was watching the Florida returns. �Even the Cardinals occasionally have a rough inning, but they know how to win championships.�

The former Arkansas governor later told FOX News he�s nowhere near quitting.

�You know, when we look at the states that are in play next week � and we�re leading in most of those southern states, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia � these are states where we really believe we�re going to do well. And we think we�ll pick up some delegates in some of the other states, possibly Montana and Minnesota. So we�re a long way � you know, this is one inning, and we�re going to be in this thing,� he said.

In the roughest battle so far in this short Republican primary season, McCain picked up key endorsements from Florida Sen. Mel Martinez and Gov. Charlie Crist, both of whom traveled with the candidate in the last few days and stood behind him as he spoke Tuesday night.

FOX News exit polls seemed to indicate that the endorsements did matter to voters. McCain led among seniors, Hispanics, Catholics and those who said Crist�s endorsement was important. Romney led among evangelicals and individuals who put illegal immigration at the top of their list of most important issues.

Exit polling showed that McCain won large margins in Miami-Dade County, where Cuban Americans helped give him a 37,000 vote margin, taking the county 48-14 percent over Romney. McCain was also helped by big margins in Tampa Bay where military and retired voters came out in force. That area is also the home base of Crist, who gave his surprise endorsement to McCain at a Pinellas County dinner on Saturday night.

Romney carried Orlando and northern portions of Florida as well as affluent counties like Naples, but the margins weren�t large enough to overcome McCain�s wider win in Miami-Dade. Huckabee, who came in fourth, also carried some southern and southern-accented counties in northern Florida.

While the Democrats were not courted by the candidates as a result of their being prohibited by the Democratic National Committee, the Illinois senator fared well among late-deciding voters, the exit polls showed.

Still, Democrats were also penalized for holding an early contest and will suffer far worse than Republicans. None of the state�s delegates will be seated at the Democratic convention in August.

Clinton, who held a rally in Florida after polls closed, said Tuesday night that she would fight to get the state�s delegates restored.

�I am convinced with this resounding vote, with the millions of Americans who will vote next Tuesday, we will send a clear message that America is back and we�re gonna take charge of our destiny again,� she said.

Florida�s vote offered a record turnout for a primary with more than 1.7 million Republicans and 1.5 million Democrats casting their selections.

Article at: youdecide08.foxnews.com

OBAMA WINS SOUTH CAROLINA!

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:38:58 -0700

TONITE!!!!

OBAMA WINS SOUTH CAROLINA! CLINTON SAYS HE'S "JUST LIKE JESSE JACKSON."(AT LEAST BILL HAS STOPPED LYING! THANKS, BILL!)

Romney Wins Nevada Caucuses

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:05:00 -0700

By DAVID ESPO

Republican Mitt Romney won Nevada's caucuses Saturday while John McCain and Mike Huckabee dueled in the South Carolina primary, a campaign doubleheader likely to winnow the crowded field of presidential rivals.

Democrats shared the stage in Nevada, where Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama vied for a caucus victory and the campaign momentum that goes with it.

Romney's western victory marked two straight successes, coming after a win in the Michigan primary earlier in the week that revived his campaign.

Alone among the Republican contenders, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas aired television ads in Nevada, and the libertarian-leaning Texan looked for his best showing of the campaign season. Nevada offered more delegates but far less appeal to the Republican candidates than South Carolina, a primary that has gone to the party's eventual nominee every four years since 1980.

That made it a magnet for former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who staked his candidacy on a strong showing, as well as for Romney, McCain, the Arizona senator; and Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.

McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, appealed to a large population of military veterans in South Carolina, and stressed his determination to rein in federal spending as he worked to avenge a bitter defeat in the 2000 primary.

Huckabee reached out to evangelical Christian voters, hoping to rebound from a string of disappointing showings since his victory in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.

Romney campaigned on a pledge to help restore the state's economy, much as he did in winning Michigan.

Alone among the major Republican contenders, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani skipped the day's events. He camped out in Florida, the first of the big states to vote, with a winner-take-all primary on Jan. 29.

If the Republican race had no clear front-runner, the Democrats had two, and little room in the campaign spotlight for the third man on the ballot, former Sen. John Edwards.

Obama and Clinton both ran all-out in Nevada, even though only 25 delegates are at stake.

Obama won the backing of an influential Culinary Workers Union. That, in turn, led to an unsuccessful lawsuit by some of Clinton's supporters who hoped to ban specially arranged caucuses along the Las Vegas Strip that could draw thousands of unionized casino and hotel workers.

Obama, hoping to become the first black president, spent nearly $1 million in television commercials. Clinton, campaigning to become the country's first woman chief executive, ran nearly $700,000 worth of commercials, and a union group backed her with nearly $100,000 on an independent ad campaign.

Former President Clinton was a constant presence, as well, in a state he carried twice on his own in 1992 and 1996.

Remarkably, neither Obama nor Clinton has aired a television commercial criticizing the other, and both of the rivals stepped back earlier in the week from a controversy over race. But that didn't prevent almost constant sniping between the two camps, each pointing out alleged inconsistencies in the other's record.

A wild card in the South Carolina GOP race was the wintry weather. In northern areas of the state, snow was forecast and expected to intensify through the day.

Bad weather and some last-minute push polling could put a damper on turnout for the primary, with first-time voters, senior citizens, independents and those still wavering staying home, according to political experts.

Huckabee, greeting voters at a polling place, said he was worried turnout in the more conservative upstate regions.

"You never know how that's going to affect people who will go your way or the other way," he told reporters. "And obviously, the upstate is an important part of South Carolina for us, and if it starts snowing up there, that's something we hope doesn't happen. But we have to take the weather what it is. We don't get to choose.

"I just hope that our voters are so committed that it doesn't affect the fact that they're going to go out and vote, because they believe this is a mission," Huckabee said.

In southern areas of the state, a misty rain greeted people at the polls.

Doug Pinkerton, a financial adviser, was among about 20 people who voted early in Mount Pleasant.

"Giuliani was my original favorite, but he seems to be running such a halfhearted campaign and putting it all on Florida. I just think that was a bad idea. If he had campaigned here more and showed some interest I probably would have voted for him, but I think that Romney will be the candidate," said Pinkerton, 59.

David Dawson, an information technology manager, said he cast his vote for McCain because he believed the Arizona senator is the most honest. "I rely on him to tell us the truth whether we like it or not. That is pretty much it," said Dawson, 32.

Across the country in Las Vegas, Romney handed out coffee and doughnuts to a crowd of supporters outside a caucus site that included two of his nieces from California, part of a crowd of door-knockers who have been helping his campaign.

Romney made seven campaign trips to Nevada, and polls showed him leading.

"It's hard to know in a caucus just who's going to come out," Romney said as he signed autographs and posed for pictures. "I saw the poll in the paper and that looked very encouraging and I've been working hard in Nevada."

Associated Press writers Seanna Adcox and Libby Quaid, both in Columbia, S.C., Bruce Smith in Mount Pleasant, S.C., and Glen Johnson in Las Vegas contributed to this report.Article at: ap.google.com

State of California proposes to take control of home temps

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:35:13 -0700

By: BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff WriterRevision to building standards would make some power conservation mandatory

California utilities would control the temperature of new homes and commercial buildings in emergencies with a radio-controlled thermostat, under a proposed state update to building energy efficiency standards.

Customers could not override the thermostats during "emergency events," according to the proposal, part of a 236-page revision to building standards. The document is scheduled to be considered by the California Energy Commission, a state agency, on Jan. 30. The description does not provide any exception for health or safety concerns. It also does not define what are "emergency events."

During heat waves, customers crank up the air conditioning, putting severe strains on the state's power supply. By giving utilities the power to automatically adjust power demand by reducing air conditioning, the hope is that more severe interruptions, such as rolling blackouts, can be avoided.

However, both the Utility Consumers Action Network, a consumer rights group, and the Riverside County Chapter of the Building Industry Association said customers should be allowed to override the thermostat.

State and utility spokespersons said utilities will provide health and safety exemptions, although that is not specified in the document. Imminent threats of blackouts would qualify as emergency events, they said. Final adoption of the revised standards is scheduled by April 2009.

The document, available at http://tinyurl.com/225htc, outlines the mandatory use of Programmable Communicating Thermostats on page 64:

"Upon receiving an emergency signal, the PCT shall respond to commands contained in the emergency signal, including changing the set-point by any number of degrees or to a specific temperature set-point. The PCT shall not allow customer changes to thermostat settings during emergency events."

The PCT specifications require them to include a "non-removable Radio Data System device that is compatible with the default statewide DR (Demand Response) communications system, which can be used by utilities to send price and emergency signals."

The mandatory nature of the proposal was described in a Jan. 4 article in the American Thinker, an online political magazine with a conservative bent. The article, which denounced the plan as overly intrusive ---- and economically counterproductive ---- is at http://tinyurl.com/29q2tp.

Michael Shames, UCAN's executive director, called the directive "a stunner" in an e-mail. "These 'advanced' energy technologies have the potential to be used for both good and evil.�It looks like the California Energy Commission wants it both ways ... good and evil."

Shames wrote that allowing external control of thermostats can help customers better manage their energy use, which he supports.

"However, it is repugnant and entirely unacceptable to mandate that the customer loses control over the device that will be mandatorily placed in their homes," Shames wrote.

Borre Winckel, executive officer of the Riverside building association, said the mandatory aspect of the proposal smacks of "Big Brother" governmental planning.

"This is not too different from certain voices we've heard from the water world ... where if somebody were to use too much water, the water agency can (by) remote control turn your water off," he said.

"What's there to keep people from deciding you've had your lights on too long?" Winckel continued. "This really does go very deep into government control into how we lead our lives."

The thermostat control would be exercised only in cases of need, and is the latest refinement of a 30-year-old building energy conservation program, said Adam Gottlieb, a spokesman for the California Energy Commission.

Thanks to efficiency standards, California's demand for electricity has remained flat since the late 1970s even as its population has doubled, Gottlieb said.

Utilities know how to interpret the new mandate, he said, and when to apply it, even though the definitions are not specified in the document.

According to Gottlieb, though, the phrase "emergency events" refers to a Stage II event or higher as defined by the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state's electrical grid.

A Stage II event occurs when electricity reserves, or the surplus of supply over demand, fall below 5 percent. A Stage III event takes place when reserves drop below 1.5 percent, and customer power may be shut down involuntarily.

"Any emergency event would be a limited-time occurrence to prevent an imminent outage," Gottlieb said.

The terms "Stage II" and "Stage III" are not defined in the document, Gottlieb said. "It's more a term of art that the utilities are familiar with."

Rachel Laing, a spokeswoman for San Diego Gas & Electric Co., said the proposals are in the early stage of consideration, and explicit exemptions for health and safety would be adopted later.

"I think you're right, that it doesn't have in this proposal what the exemption criteria would be," Laing said. "This proposal is the start of the whole long process of several hearings, and those hearings are meant to identify issues just like this one. We expect that the final plan will have exemptions."

Laing said SDG&E notifies those with medical needs beforehand of rolling blackouts.

"Their account is flagged, and when we have a rolling blackout, a message is sent out in advance to those folks," Laing said.

-- Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com.

Article at: nctimes.com

The Pope condemns the climate change prophets of doom

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:41:04 -0700

By SIMON CALDWELL

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement.

His remarks will be made in his annual message for World Peace Day on January 1, but they were released as delegates from all over the world convened on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali for UN climate change talks.

The 80-year-old Pope said the world needed to care for the environment but not to the point where the welfare of animals and plants was given a greater priority than that of mankind. "Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow," he said in the message entitled "The Human Family, A Community of Peace".

"It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances.

"If the protection of the environment involves costs, they should be justly distributed, taking due account of the different levels of development of various countries and the need for solidarity with future generations.

"Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and postponing decisions; it means being committed to making joint decisions after pondering responsibly the road to be taken."

Efforts to protect the environment should seek "agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances", the Pope said.

He added that to further the cause of world peace it was sensible for nations to "choose the path of dialogue rather than the path of unilateral decisions" in how to cooperate responsibly on conserving the planet.

The Pope's message is traditionally sent to heads of government and international organisations.

His remarks reveal that while the Pope acknowledges that problems may be associated with unbridled development and climate change, he believes the case against global warming to be over-hyped.

A broad consensus is developing among the world's scientific community over the evils of climate change.

But there is also an intransigent body of scientific opinion which continues to insist that industrial emissions are not to blame for the phenomenon.

Such scientists point out that fluctuations in the earth's temperature are normal and can often be caused by waves of heat generated by the sun. Other critics of environmentalism have compared the movement to a burgeoning industry in its own right.

In the spring, the Vatican hosted a conference on climate change that was welcomed by environmentalists.

But senior cardinals close to the Vatican have since expressed doubts about a movement which has been likened by critics to be just as dogmatic in its assumptions as any religion.

In October, the Australian Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, caused an outcry when he noted that the atmospheric temperature of Mars had risen by 0.5 degrees celsius.

"The industrial-military complex up on Mars can't be blamed for that," he said in a criticism of Australian scientists who had claimed that carbon emissions would force temperatures on earth to rise by almost five degrees by 2070 unless drastic solutions were enforced.

Article at: dailymail.co.uk

Merck drug company vaccines admits injecting cancer viruses

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:38:53 -0700

Maurice Ralph Hilleman (August 30, 1919�April 11, 2005)

This stunning censored interview conducted by medical historian Edward Shorter for WGBH public television (Boston) and Blackwell Science was cut from The Health Century due to its huge liability--the admission that Merck drug company vaccines have traditionally been injecting cancer viruses (SV40 and others) in people worldwide.

This segment of In Lies We Trust: The CIA, Hollywood & Bioterrorism, produced and freely contributed by consumer protector and public health expert, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, features the world's leading vaccine expert, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, who explains why Merck's vaccines have spread AIDS, leukemia, and other horrific plagues worldwide.

Article at: liveleak.com

Death by Vaccination

Map that named America is still a puzzle

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:31:23 -0700

The only surviving copy of the 500 year old map that first used the name America continues to be a puzzle for researchers.

The 1507 Waldseemuller map is due to go on permanent display this month at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.

Researchers want to know why the mapmaker named the territory America and then changed his mind, how he was able to draw South America so accurately and why did he put a huge ocean west of America years before European explorers discovered the Pacific?

"That's the kind of conundrum, the question, that is still out there," said John Hebert, chief of the geography and map division of the Library of Congress. The 12 sheets that make up the map, purchased from German Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg for $US10 million ($A11.4 million) in 2003, have been mounted in a huge 1.85 metre by 2.95 metre display case machined from a single block of aluminum.

The case will be flooded with inert argon gas to prevent deterioration when it goes on public display on December 13.

Researchers are hopeful that putting the rarely shown map on permanent display for the first time since it was discovered in the Waldburg-Wolfegg castle archives in 1901 may stimulate interest in finding out more about the documents used to produce it.

The map was created by the German monk Martin Waldseemuller.

Thirteen years after Christopher Columbus first landed in the Western Hemisphere, the Duke of Lorraine brought Waldseemuller and a group of scholars together at a monastery in Saint-Die in France to create a new map of the world.

The result, published two years later, is stunningly accurate and surprisingly modern.

"The actual shape of South America is correct," said Hebert.

"The width of South America at certain key points is correct within 70 miles (100 km) of accuracy."

Given what Europeans are believed to have known about the world at the time, it should not have been possible for the mapmakers to produce it, he said.

The map gives a reasonably correct depiction of the west coast of South America. But according to history, Vasco Nunez de Balboa did not reach the Pacific by land until 1513, and Ferdinand Magellan did not round the southern tip of the continent until 1520.

"So this is a rather compelling map to say, 'How did they come to that conclusion,'" Hebert said.

The mapmakers say they based it on the 1,300-year-old works of the Egyptian geographer Ptolemy as well as letters Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci wrote describing his voyages to the new world. But Hebert said there must have been something more.

"From the writings of Vespucci you couldn't have prepared the map," Hebert said.

"There had to be something cartographic with it."

Waldseemuller made it clear he was naming the new land after Vespucci, describing how he came up with the name America based on the navigator's first name.

But he soon had misgivings about what he had done. An atlas Waldseemuller produced six years later shows only part of the east coast of the Americas, and refers to it as Terra Incognita - unknown land.

"America has gone out of his lexicon," Hebert said. "(No) place in the atlas - in the text or in the maps - does the name America appear."

His 1516 mariner's map, on the same scale as the 1507 map, steps back even further, showing only parts of the new continents and reconnecting the north to Asia. South America is labelled Terra Nova - New World - and North America is labelled Terra de Cuba - Land of Cuba.

"Essentially he's reconnecting North America to the Asian mainland, suggesting a continual world of land mass rather than separated by those bodies of water that separate us from Europe and Asia," Hebert said.

Why the rollback? No one knows.

In writings accompanying the 1516 map, Waldseemuller comes across as if he "has seen the better of his error and is now correcting it," Hebert said.

He speculated that power politics played a role. Spain and Portugal divided the globe between them in 1494, two years after Columbus, with territory to the east going to Portugal and land to the west to Spain.

That demarcation line is oddly absent from the 1507 Waldseemuller map, and flags marking territorial claims in South America suggest Portugal controls the region's southernmost land, even though it is in Spain's area of influence. On the later map, the southernmost flag is Spanish, Hebert said.

"It is possible one could say the 1507 map is influenced strongly by Portuguese sources and conceivably the 1516 map may be influenced more by Spanish sources," he said.

Although the map conceals many mysteries, one thing is clear: it represents a revolutionary shift in the way Europe viewed the world.

"This is ... essentially the beginning or first map of the modern age, and it's one that everything builds on from that point forward," Hebert said.

"It becomes a keystone map."

Article at: au.news.yahoo.com