All is well in the free, democratic paradise of Iraq. Except little things, like the one that over a hundred people have died and another hundred and fifty people have been injured in one of the most deadly suicide bombings of the war. More.
This isn´t a civil war only because there´s just one side at the moment committing these appalling acts of mass murder(but the Kurds and the Shiites are not totally free of the stain of discriminating against other ethnic and religious groups and killing people they don´t like). We can all be thankful for the majority´s patience and endurance. I totally oppose the war and think that the Americans should be made pay dearly for what they have done, not just during this war, but for helping the Baath party first gain power and then supporting Saddam Hussein´s dictatorship, but sinking Iraq in the throes of a civil war is criminal.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Geneva honours modern-day Galileo
Michael Mayor, the Swiss planet hunter who found the first planet - 51 Pegasi b - orbiting a normal Sun-like star in 1995 with Didier Queloz, interviewed.
Michael Mayor, the Swiss planet hunter who found the first planet - 51 Pegasi b - orbiting a normal Sun-like star in 1995 with Didier Queloz, interviewed.
Israel´s leadership tries to use the Tel Aviv suicide bombing as an excuse to destroy peace hopes - which was only to be expected, and certainly it was expected by those responsible for the bombing. What would now be needed is a police operation, not what Israel´s leadership is threatening to do: to continue the conflict, as it demands that the Palestinian Authority starts a civil war.
Everybody knew that this would happen, and everybody should have known that if peace is to be achieved, these kind of things must be dealt with patience and bluntly, just to be accepted. Almost 5000 people have died during the last three and a half years. The death of four people shouldn´t be a used as an excuse to stop the peace efforts, which action would cause the deaths of thousands of more people in the coming years.
As we saw in Tel Aviv, the wall through the West Bank doesn´t stop the suicide bombers - the reason Israel´s government claims it is build for. Which of course is not the reason for it. Annexation of parts of the remaining Palestinian land is.
Everybody knew that this would happen, and everybody should have known that if peace is to be achieved, these kind of things must be dealt with patience and bluntly, just to be accepted. Almost 5000 people have died during the last three and a half years. The death of four people shouldn´t be a used as an excuse to stop the peace efforts, which action would cause the deaths of thousands of more people in the coming years.
As we saw in Tel Aviv, the wall through the West Bank doesn´t stop the suicide bombers - the reason Israel´s government claims it is build for. Which of course is not the reason for it. Annexation of parts of the remaining Palestinian land is.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Friday, February 25, 2005
Martian gases pose life question
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Vittorio Formisano told a Dutch space conference methane and formaldehyde could signify biological activity. But the cautious professor, from the Institute of Interplanetary Space Physics in Rome, said only soil analysis on the planet could prove it. Confirmation came through hard data, not "fantasy", he told BBC News. "[My observations] should not be taken as a statement that there is life on Mars today, because we need to go there, to drill the soil, take samples, and analyse them before possibly concluding that life is there," Professor Formisano said.
Quote:
Vittorio Formisano told a Dutch space conference methane and formaldehyde could signify biological activity. But the cautious professor, from the Institute of Interplanetary Space Physics in Rome, said only soil analysis on the planet could prove it. Confirmation came through hard data, not "fantasy", he told BBC News. "[My observations] should not be taken as a statement that there is life on Mars today, because we need to go there, to drill the soil, take samples, and analyse them before possibly concluding that life is there," Professor Formisano said.
Israel plans housing boom in the illegal settlements on the occupied West Bank. 6391 new apartments for colonialists. More.
Israelis should decide, do they really want peace, or do they want the conflict to continue and intensify? If they want the latter, this is the way to go.
Israelis should decide, do they really want peace, or do they want the conflict to continue and intensify? If they want the latter, this is the way to go.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
More about the possible frozen sea on Elysium Planitia in Mars; and a new find about the past history of Martian climate: Martian pole reveals ice age cycles.
Gyro sacrifice may extend Hubble's life
Quote:
Preliminary results suggest the new, scaled-down operating mode will buy the telescope an extra year of life - possibly until the end of 2008 - without sacrificing too much science... The telescope was originally designed to use three of its six gyroscopes to point and stabilise itself in space. But these devices regularly break down - astronauts have replaced them twice. Now, the 15-year-old observatory has only four working gyroscopes - including one in "standby" mode in case of another failure.Fortunately, engineers at NASA foresaw trouble after the Columbia accident and began work on software that would allow the telescope to run on only two gyros, making the third a further standby. From 20 to 23 February, they conducted the first full-scale test of the new system by using data from only two gyros.
Quote:
Preliminary results suggest the new, scaled-down operating mode will buy the telescope an extra year of life - possibly until the end of 2008 - without sacrificing too much science... The telescope was originally designed to use three of its six gyroscopes to point and stabilise itself in space. But these devices regularly break down - astronauts have replaced them twice. Now, the 15-year-old observatory has only four working gyroscopes - including one in "standby" mode in case of another failure.Fortunately, engineers at NASA foresaw trouble after the Columbia accident and began work on software that would allow the telescope to run on only two gyros, making the third a further standby. From 20 to 23 February, they conducted the first full-scale test of the new system by using data from only two gyros.
Boning up on human evolution
Quote:
"On one hand, we're explorers of lost worlds," says White, preparing to spend the fall at a bare-bones campsite in a dry, rocky rift 180 miles northeast of Addis Ababa. "On the other hand, we're forensic scientists. We don't have a lot of clues left from what happened in prehistory, so we have to assemble those clues from the fragmentary fossil record and study each one very intensively to extract as much information as we can."
Quote:
"On one hand, we're explorers of lost worlds," says White, preparing to spend the fall at a bare-bones campsite in a dry, rocky rift 180 miles northeast of Addis Ababa. "On the other hand, we're forensic scientists. We don't have a lot of clues left from what happened in prehistory, so we have to assemble those clues from the fragmentary fossil record and study each one very intensively to extract as much information as we can."
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
NY Times column about an archive of photographs taken by AU observers in Darfur which record the atrocities committed there by the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed militia which is allied with it.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
After Iraq will the US attack Syria next?
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The US has no objection to the crimes of Syria’s rulers. That is not why Bush is threatening war. It is because Syria is opposed to a peace deal with Israel, offers verbal support to Hamas in Palestine and to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Of course Syrial is not opposed to a peace deal with Israel, nor is Israel opposed to a peace deal with Syria either; the question is about the terms of the peace: Where will the border be drawn? Will it follow the pre-1967 border? Will it be based on the 1923 agreement between Britain - then ruler of Palestine - and France - then ruler or Syria - or will the border be drawn at Israel´s will, so that all the major water resources in the border region will be left to it´s side of the border?
Quote:
The US has no objection to the crimes of Syria’s rulers. That is not why Bush is threatening war. It is because Syria is opposed to a peace deal with Israel, offers verbal support to Hamas in Palestine and to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Of course Syrial is not opposed to a peace deal with Israel, nor is Israel opposed to a peace deal with Syria either; the question is about the terms of the peace: Where will the border be drawn? Will it follow the pre-1967 border? Will it be based on the 1923 agreement between Britain - then ruler of Palestine - and France - then ruler or Syria - or will the border be drawn at Israel´s will, so that all the major water resources in the border region will be left to it´s side of the border?
Release of children should be a priority
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It’s imperative that the 321 Palestinian child prisoners currently held in Israeli prisons or detention facilities be given the priority in the upcoming releases. The fundamental rights of these children as laid out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child are being severely violated, and their rights must not be bargained away on any term.
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It’s imperative that the 321 Palestinian child prisoners currently held in Israeli prisons or detention facilities be given the priority in the upcoming releases. The fundamental rights of these children as laid out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child are being severely violated, and their rights must not be bargained away on any term.
Newest Israeli route of the wall it´s building inside West Bank would lead to the annexation of 7% of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live on these areas.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Huygens detects geological activity on Titan
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The ratio of carbon isotopes 12C and 13C in Titan's atmosphere, measured by the probe's Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) instrument, indicates that methane is being replenished on the freezing world. Continuing geological activity beneath the surface is thought to be the most likely source.
Quote:
The ratio of carbon isotopes 12C and 13C in Titan's atmosphere, measured by the probe's Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) instrument, indicates that methane is being replenished on the freezing world. Continuing geological activity beneath the surface is thought to be the most likely source.
Iraq's marshlands show renewed signs of life
Quote:
Richardson told New Scientist that maintaining the Al-Hawizeh marsh will crucial to reseeding other areas of the marshland. He says it would be impossible to restore the marshlands entirely but thinks 30% could be salvaged. "The ecological consequences of not restoring the marshland would be enormous," he warns... Lush wetlands once covered 15,000 square kilometres of southern Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers... But more than 90% of the area was destroyed in the 1990s by the diversion of water for agricultural irrigation, as well as deliberate draining ordered by Saddam Hussein in retaliation for the Marsh Arab's uprising after the first Gulf War... But the scientists remain concerned that indiscriminate reflooding could do more harm than good and may cause lasting environmental damage. For example, areas where there is no outlet for the water are becoming increasingly saline, through evaporation of the water. This makes them inhospitable to plant and animal life.
Quote:
Richardson told New Scientist that maintaining the Al-Hawizeh marsh will crucial to reseeding other areas of the marshland. He says it would be impossible to restore the marshlands entirely but thinks 30% could be salvaged. "The ecological consequences of not restoring the marshland would be enormous," he warns... Lush wetlands once covered 15,000 square kilometres of southern Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers... But more than 90% of the area was destroyed in the 1990s by the diversion of water for agricultural irrigation, as well as deliberate draining ordered by Saddam Hussein in retaliation for the Marsh Arab's uprising after the first Gulf War... But the scientists remain concerned that indiscriminate reflooding could do more harm than good and may cause lasting environmental damage. For example, areas where there is no outlet for the water are becoming increasingly saline, through evaporation of the water. This makes them inhospitable to plant and animal life.
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