A Gen-X View of the Universe.
"The Issue Isn't Pussy, It's Monkey" - from The Right Stuff
Film, Cinema, Movies, TV, Music, Rock
Caption: Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein looks on as guards forcibly remove his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti during their trial. - AFPThey Don't Know How To Do This In Iraq
The new chief judge in the case, Raouf Abdel-Rahman, told the defence team in opening remarks that he would not allow political statements.It's a worse circus than on Judge Judy, by the sound of it.
He is under pressure to deal firmly with Saddam after his predecessor, who resigned two weeks ago, was accused by the Government of being too soft on the accused and allowing his courtroom tirades to go unchecked.
Saddam and seven co-accused are on trial for crimes against humanity, charged with killing 148 men from the Shiite town of Dujail after a failed attempt to assassinate him there in 1982.
Within minutes of the trial resuming, Judge Abdel-Rahman ejected Saddam's former intelligence chief, Barzan al-Tikriti, after he refused to keep quiet and called the trial "a daughter of a whore".
The defence team protested that they were being treated unfairly and threatened to leave.
"If you leave then you can't come back for future sessions," Judge Abdel-Rahman told them.
Saddam's chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said the US-sponsored court was illegal and "run by the Americans". He and his colleagues then left the courtroom.
When some of the defendants stood up to leave as well, the judge told guards to sit them down.
"I want to leave," Saddam told the judge. "Then leave," said Mr Abdel-Rahman.
"It is a tragedy. I led you for 35 years. How can you lead me out of court?" Saddam asked.
"You wanted to leave," the judge replied, after which Saddam left. He was followed by his former vice-president, Taha Yassin Ramadan.
The court has been in turmoil since its Kurdish chief judge, Rizgar Amin, resigned complaining of pressure from the Shiite-led Government to speed up the process and crack down on outbursts by Saddam and some of his co-accused, whose outbursts have dominated proceedings.
The stormy session was sure to increase doubts over the trial's fairness – a vital concern in a nation that is trying to reconcile its Sunni Arab minority, which dominated Iraq under Saddam, and the Shiite Muslim majority that now controls the government.Man, this is just hilarious. And justice for all!
Sunday's proceedings, the first in over a month, disintegrated almost immediately into shouting and insults.
First, co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim was pulled out by guards after he stood and called the court “the daughter of a whore,” while Saddam shouted “down with traitors” and “down with the Americans.”
Then Abdel-Rahman, a Kurd, threw out a defense attorneys for arguing with him. The rest of the defense team stormed out in protest as the judge shouted after them, “Any lawyer who walks out will not be allowed back into this courtroom.”
Abdel-Rahman appointed four new defense lawyers. But Saddam stood and rejected them. Holding a copy of the Quran and other papers under his arm, he said he wanted to leave. After an argument with the judge – during which guards pushed Saddam back into his chair – guards escorted the former Iraqi leader out of the room.
Two other defendants also rejected their new lawyers and were allowed to leave.
The proceedings then resumed with only four of the eight defendants present, and none of their original lawyers.
The court began hearing an anonymous female prosecution witness, who testified for about an hour from behind a beige curtain, as several earlier witnesses have done to protect them from reprisals. The new defense lawyers declined the opportunity to cross-examine the witness.
Saddam and his seven co-defendants are charged in the deaths of about 140 Shiite Muslims following an assassination attempt against the former Iraqi leader in the Shiite town of Dujail in 1982. The defendants could face death by hanging if convicted.
The delayed television feed of the proceedings – which is controlled by the judges and broadcast throughout Iraq and the Arab world – was cut off right after Ibrahim's initial outburst. It resumed some time later, cutting out the removal of Ibrahim and the subsequent fight with the lawyers but showing the judge's arguments with Saddam.
Abdel-Rahman obviously came into the session aiming to impose control on a trial that has been plagued by delays and frequent outbursts by Saddam and Ibrahim, who is Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief.
He began the proceedings with a show of authority, shouting at one defense lawyer for interrupting him and stressing in an opening statement that “political speeches” were not allowed and “if any defendant crosses the lines, he will be taken out of the room and his trial will be carried out with his absence.”
Ibrahim stood up, demanded to be allowed to speak and said, “Circumstances have forced us to deal with each other here, in spite of my belief that this tribunal is illegitimate, the daughter of a whore.”
The judge ordered him to sit down, shouting, “One more word and I'm throwing you out.” When Ibrahim refused to sit, two burly guards grabbed him by the arms and dragged him out of the court.
As they scuffled, Saddam stood and shouted, “Down with the traitors. Down with America.” Defense lawyers began shouting as well. “Is this a street demonstration, are you lawyers?” Abdel-Rahman barked at them.
The judge turned to defense lawyer, Salih al-Armouti, a Jordanian who recently joined the team, and asked if courts in his country would allow such behavior.
“My country gives me my rights,” al-Armouti replied.
Abdel-Rahman ordered guards to take al-Armouti out of the court, saying, “You have incited your clients and we will start criminal proceedings against you.” The rest of the defense team followed al-Armouti out in protest.
The chief judge appointed new defense lawyers, but Saddam rejected them and told the judge he had a right to leave if he does not accept his attorneys.
“You do not leave, I allow you to leave when I want to,” Abdel-Rahman said.
“For 35 years, I administered your rights,” Saddam replied, referring to his time in power.
“I am the judge and you are the defendant,” Abdel-Rahman said. Two guards pushed Saddam by his shoulders back into his chair, before they were ordered to lead the ousted ruler out of the room.
Saddam's trial has been troubled since it started on Oct. 19, with the killing of two defense lawyers and another judge's decision last month to step down.
Heading into Sunday's session, Saddam's defense team said they would file motions questioning the court's independence and legitimacy because of the shake-up among the judges. Former chief judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin resigned in mid-January after politicians complained about the slow pace of the proceedings.
The trial had been due to resume on Tuesday, but that day's session was abruptly called off after some members of the five-judge panel opposed Abdel-Rahman's appointment over Amin's deputy, Saeed al-Hammash, who was removed the case amid accusations he once belonged to Saddam's Baath Party. Al-Hammash – a Shiite – denied the claims.
After the outbursts, the witness told the court she was arrested several days after the 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam. She said her interrogators removed her Islamic headscarf and gave her electric shocks to her head.
“I thought my eyes would pop out,” she said. Sixteen other members of her family also were arrested, and seven of them were killed in detention – including her husband, who she said was tortured to death.
She said two of the defendants who remained in the court – Ali Dayih Ali and Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid – were among those who came to her home to arrest her. The two defendants denied the accusation.
The court-appointed defense lawyers declined to cross-examine the witness and the court adjourned for a lunch break.
Amin, the former chief judge and a Kurd, watched the trial from home in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah and questioned whether his critics could run the tribunal any better than he did.
“I am happy that I am no longer part of this trial. I am happy to watch it on television while sitting in my house,” he told The Associated Press. “I wish the trial were run by a Shiite judge because I want to know how they are going to manage it”
Comical Answers to British Radio & TV Quiz Shows...
>UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
>Bamber Gascoigne: What was Ghandi's first name?
>Contestant: Goosey, Goosey?
>
>THE WEAKEST LINK
>Anne Robinson: In traffic, what "J" is where two roads meet?
>Contestant: Jool carriageway.
>
>Anne Robinson: Which Italian city is overlooked by Vesuvius?
>Contestant: Bombay.
>
>Anne Robinson: What insect is commonly found hovering above lakes?
>Contestant: Crocodiles.
>Anne Robinson: Wh...?
>Contestant (interrupting): Pass!
>
>Anne Robinson: In olden times, what were minstrels, travelling
>entertainers or chocolate salesmen?
>Contestant: Chocolate salesmen.
>
>Anne Robinson: The Bible, the New Testament. The Four Gospels were
>written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and...?
>Contestant: (long pause) Joe?
>
>Anne Robinson: Who was a famous Indian leader, whose name begins with
>G, revered by millions, who was assassinated and received a state funeral?
>Contestant: Geronimo!
>
>NATIONAL LOTTERY JET SET
>Eamonn Holmes: What's the name of the playwright commonly known by the
>initials G.B.S.?
>Contestant: William Shakespeare.
>
>CHRIS SEARLE SHOW, BBC BRISTOL
>Searle: In which European country is Mount Etna?
>Caller: Japan.
>Searle: I did say which European country, so in case you didn't hear
>that, I can let you try again.
>Caller: Er... Mexico?
>
>FAMILY FORTUNES
>1) Something a blind man might use? - A Sword
>2) A song with the word Moon in the title? - Blue Suede Moon
>3) Name the capital of France? - F
>4) Name a bird with a long Neck? - Naomi Campbell
>5) Name an occupation where you might need a torch? - A burglar
>6) Where is the Taj Mahal? - Opposite the Dental Hospital
>7) What is Hitler's first name? - Heil
>8)A famous Scotsman? - Jock
>9) Some famous brothers? - Bonnie and Clyde.
>10) A dangerous race? - The Arabs
>11) Something that floats in a bath? - Water
>12) An item of clothing worn by the Three Musketeers? - A horse
>13) Something you wear on a beach? - A deckchair
>14) A famous Royal? - Mail
>15) Something that flies that doesn't have an engine? - A bicycle with wings
>16) A famous bridge? - The Bridge Over Troubled Waters
>17) Something a cat does? - Goes to the toilet
>18)
>19) A method of securing your home? - Put the kettle on
>20) Something associated with pigs? - The Police
>21) A sign of the Zodiac? - April
>22) Something people might be allergic to? - Skiing
>23) Something you do before you go to bed? - Sleep
>24) Something you put on walls? - A roof
>25) Something slippery? - A conman
>26) A kind of ache? - A fillet of fish
>27) A jacket potato topping? - Jam
>28) A food that can be brown or white? - A potato
>29) Something sold by gypsies? - Bananas
>30) Something red? - My sweater
>RADIO LINCS PHONE-IN
>Presenter: Which is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world?
>Contestant: Barcelona.
>Presenter: I was really after the name of a country.
>Contestant: I'm sorry, I don't know the names of any countries in Spain.
>
>STEVE WRIGHT SHOW, RADIO 2
>Wright: On which continent would you find the River Danube?
>Contestant: India.
>
>Wright: What is the Italian word for motorway?
>Contestant: Espresso.
>
>Wright: What is the capital of Australia? And it's not Sydney.
>Contestant: Sydney.
>
>THIS MORNING
>Judy Finnegan: The American TV show 'The Sopranos' is about opera. True
>or false?
>Contestant: True?
>Judy Finnegan: No, actually, it's about the Mafia. But it is an
>American TV show,so I'll give you that.
>
>BBC RADIO NEWCASTLE
>Paul Wappat: How long did the Six Day War between Egypt and Israel last?
>Contestant (after long pause): Fourteen days.
>
>BOB HOPE BIRTHDAY QUIZ, LBC
>Presenter: Bob Hope was the fifth of how many sons?
>Contestant: Four
>
>BBC GMR, PHIL WOOD SHOW
>Wood: What "K" could be described as the Islamic Bible?
>Contestant: Er...
>Wood: It's got two syllables... Kor...
>Contestant: Blimey?
>Wood: Ha ha ha ha no. The past participle of run...
>Contestant: (Silence)
>Wood: OK, try it another way. Today I run, yesterday I...
>Contestant: Walked?
>
>DARYL'S DRIVETIME, VIRGIN RADIO
>Daryl Denham: In which country would you spend shekels?
>Contestant: Holland?
>Daryl Denham: Try the next letter of the alphabet.
>Contestant: Iceland? Ireland?
>Daryl Denham (helpfully): It's a bad line. Did you say Israel?
>Contestant: No.
“THE entire continent is involved,” the man investigating whether Europe’s governments are facilitating the CIA in the kidnap and torture of terror suspects claimed in his first report yesterday.Well that'd be right. Why do the torture yourself when guys like I mentioned yesterday bungle it up and kill people? Give the job to the real experts of Europe where they've had millennia to develop exquisite techniques of informational persuasion otherwise known as plain old Sadism? The Marquis would have been up to tendering a contract.
Dick Marty, the Swiss senator and lawyer given the job by the Council of Europe, was highly critical that governments had not instigated formal investigations about the allegations which first arose over two years ago.
Europe has been affected by more than 100 kidnappings of terror suspects by CIA agents while hundreds of CIA-chartered flights have passed through European countries, he said.
"It is highly unlikely that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware. And a number of revelations have already been published by the press, especially in America, over the past few years," he said.
Australia's victory in the World Cup was largely due to two lesser-profile players in Andy Bichel and Brad Hogg, who benefited from the rotation system.Aah Mr. Waugh, only if it were still so. Certainly, the 1996-2000 Yankees were like that with a very deep bench but recent Yankee teams have sported really crappy bench players and it's been one of the reasons the post-seasons have been a bust. But it's nice to know Steve was watching. :)
It wasn't exactly rocket science and many other sports teams had employed it with success, including Manchester United and the New York Yankees, but the key to it being beneficial was to back its implementation not just when the team was winning but also if it lost.
FORT CARSON, Colo., Jan. 23 (AP) - A military jury ordered a reprimand but no jail time Monday for an Army interrogator convicted of negligent homicide in the death of an Iraqi general who died after he stuffed him headfirst into a sleeping bag and sat on his chest.Umm, yeah right. So Lynndie England does 3 years for putting a naked Iraqi on a leash and getting photographed, while this guy gets off with a *reprimand* only having killed an Iraqi General. Hello! This sucks.
The interrogator, Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr., also was ordered to forfeit $6,000 in salary and was largely restricted to his barracks and workplace for 60 days.
Mr. Welshofer, 43, had originally been charged with murder and faced up to life in prison. But on Saturday he was convicted of lesser charges carrying up to three years and three months in prison, dishonorable discharge and a loss of pension.
After hearing the sentence, reached by the jury of six Army officers, Mr. Welshofer hugged his wife. Soldiers in the gallery, many of whom had worked with Mr. Welshofer and who testified as character witnesses, broke into applause.
The sentence now goes to the commanding general, Maj. Gen. Robert W. Mixon, who cannot order a harsher sentence but could lighten it or set the whole verdict aside, Mr. Welshofer's lawyer, Frank Spinner, said.
Prosecutors said Mr. Welshofer had put a sleeping bag over the head of the Iraqi, Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, and used his hand to cover his mouth while questioning him at a detention camp in Iraq in 2003.
Earlier in the day during the sentencing hearing, Mr. Welshofer fought back tears. "I deeply apologize if my actions tarnished the soldiers serving in Iraq," he said.
宇宙航空研究開発機構（ＪＡＸＡ）は２４日午前１０時３３分、Ｈ２Ａロケット８号機を鹿児島県南種子町の種子島宇宙センターから打ち上げた。約１６分後、搭載した陸域観測技術衛星（ＡＬＯＳ）「だいち」を計画通り分離し、打ち上げは成功した。ＪＡＸＡは２月中旬にも大型ロケット２機の打ち上げを予定している。１カ月間に３機連続の打ち上げは国内初で、衛星打ち上げ市場参入など、日本の宇宙開発の今後を占う試金石として注目を集めている。
◇２月中旬の２機打ち上げに弾み
ロケットは太平洋上を東南に向かって上昇。予定通り高度約７００キロで第２段ロケットから衛星を分離、衛星は地球を南北に周回する軌道に乗った。今後、観測機器の動作確認などをして、約３カ月後に運用を始める予定。
８号機は当初、昨年９月に打ち上げ予定だったが、衛星に不具合が相次ぎ、今月１９日に延期された。この影響でＪＡＸＡは８号機のほか、２月１５日に種子島宇宙センターからＨ２Ａ９号機を、同１８日に内之浦宇宙空間観測所（鹿児島県肝付町）からＭ５ロケット８号機を打ち上げることになった。Ｈ２Ａ８号機は今月１９日の打ち上げも機器などの不具合や天候不良で延期されていた。
今回の打ち上げ費用は約１０１億円で、衛星開発費は約５４７億円。【河津啓介】
【ことば】Ｈ２Ａロケット 宇宙開発事業団（現ＪＡＸＡ）が開発した２段式ロケット。全長５３メートル、重さ３２１トン（衛星除く）。燃料の液体水素を液体酸素と反応させて推進力を得る。地球を回る高度３００キロの軌道に約１０トンの大型衛星を打ち上げられる能力がある。固体補助ロケットの種類や数を変えることで、さまざまな重さの衛星に対応できる。第１段ロケットを大型化し、国際宇宙ステーションへ物資を補給する１７トン級の輸送機を打ち上げられる「Ｈ２Ｂ」を開発中。
【ことば】陸域観測技術衛星「だいち」 高度７００キロから地表を観測し、２万５０００分の１の地図作成のための地形データ収集などを行う。４６日ごとに同じ地点を同じ時間帯に観測できる軌道を回る。地表の２・５メートルのものを見分ける光学センサーなど３種類のセンサーを搭載。昼夜、天候に関係なく観測したり、災害時、３日以内に観測したい地点で緊急観測する機能も備えている。重さ約４トンで、国内打ち上げ衛星で最重量。
陸域観測技術衛星「だいち」を搭載したＨ２Ａロケット８号機。打ち上げから約１６分半後に、高度約７００キロで分離され、地球を南北に約１００分で回る軌道に投入された（２４日午前、種子島宇宙センター）（時事通信社）12時03分更新
The gist of it is pretty much what you'd expect based on the fact that the Chinese offiicals don't really want to raise the topic of war time comfort women. To be honest, it surprises me, mostly at the poverty of imagination that goes from Geisha to Prostitute to War Time Comfort Women. I mean it's like a really bad word association game that reveals more about the respondent than the words themsleves. Still, it's not the Chinese public's fault necessarily, but rather, it's the nature of censorship that breeds ignorance that breeds such stupidity.
２３日付の香港紙「東方日報」などは、来月１０日に中国本土で予定されていたハリウッド映画「ＳＡＹＵＲＩ」（ロブ・マーシャル監督）の初上映が中止されたと報じた。中国人女優の章子怡（チャン・ツィイー）さんがヒロインの芸者役を演じていることから、中国人に旧日本軍の従軍慰安婦問題を思い起こさせ、反日感情の悪化につながることが懸念されるためと同紙は伝えている。
「ＳＡＹＵＲＩ」は、スティーブン・スピルバーグ氏が製作総指揮を執り、中国のトップ女優、鞏俐（コン・リー）さんも芸者役で出演する。
中国のインターネット上では昨年から、章さんが芸者役を演じることについて「国を辱めるものだ」といった批判の書き込みが相次いでいた。報道によると、中国では来月１０日に上映が始まる予定だったが、国家放送映画テレビ総局が「扱うテーマが敏感」との理由で中止を決めた。その後の上映計画についても審議しているが、許可される可能性は低いという。
Finally, the probe is launched and underway towards Pluto.According to the NASA press release, the Atlas V rocket carrying the vehicle lifted off at 14:00 EST. It separated from the solid fuel "kick motor" a tad under 45 minutes later. Five minutes after that, radio signals from New Horizons confirmed that all was well.I'm glad that one's underway. The JAXA launch is now sitting on the pad, waiting to go tomorrow morning.
Dr Colleen Hartman, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, enthused: "Today, NASA began an unprecedented journey of exploration to the ninth planet in the solar system. Right now, what we know about Pluto could be written on the back of a postage stamp. After this mission, we'll be able to fill textbooks with new information."
Dr. Alan Stern, New Horizons' principal investigator, indulged in a bit of flag-waving with: "The United States of America has just made history by launching the first spacecraft to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt beyond. No other nation has this capability. This is the kind of exploration that forefathers, like Lewis and Clark 200 years ago this year, made a trademark of our nation."
２３日の打ち上げに向けて最終的な準備を進めていた２２日深夜に、衛星を保護するカバー内の空調温度を監視する地上のシステムが、温度の上限を上回っているとの警告を発したため。The gist of that one is that there were some ground to tower problems.
同機構が、カバー内に送り込まれる空気の温度を別の複数のセンサーで測定したところ、正常な温度だった。同機構では「監視システムに誤った温度が設定されていることが判明したが、なぜそうなったかは不明」としている。同機構では、温度の監視を目視に切り替え、２４日の打ち上げに臨むとしている。
８号機は当初１９日に打ち上げる計画だったが、ロケットの送信機に不具合が見つかって延期された。今回で２度目の延期となった。
George Clooney's quip about controversial Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff during the Golden Globes has erupted into a war of words, with Abramoff's Rancho Mirage father responding to what he called a "glib and ridiculous attack" on his son.It's got to be said that Jack "-off" was not somebody who happened to accidentally cause a great loss to the public purse but somebody who confessed to fraud and tax evasion, and copped a plea bargain. He's hardly a tragic figure worthy of the word 'tragedy'; he is a buffoon born of greed and corruption inherent in the process of US Democracy.
Frank Abramoff, in a letter addressed to the actor and sent to The Desert Sun on Thursday, said it was "astonishing" to see Clooney - during his acceptance speech for best supporting actor for "Syriana" at the Golden Globes on Monday - thank Jack Abramoff "just because" and then comment about the lobbyist's name.
"Who would name their kid Jack with the last word 'off' at the end of your last name? No wonder that guy is screwed up," Clooney said during the internationally televised awards show.
The story was broken Thursday afternoon on www.thedesertsun.com.
Abramoff, a well-known Washington lobbyist and associate of several top Republican leaders, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion Jan. 3 in a plea agreement. He has agreed to cooperate with a federal influence-peddling investigation that could focus on as many as 20 members of Congress.
The situation, which has sent Washington politicos reeling, could become the worst ethical scandal to rock Capital Hill in recent years.
In the two-page letter, Frank Abramoff furiously defends the name, saying his son is named after Frank's father. Abramoff called Clooney's acts a "lapse in lucidity" and an "obscene query."
In a phone interview, Nick Clooney said he wasn't surprised by his son's "off-hand and flippant" remarks, but did relate with Frank Abramoff's concerns.Well, it was hardly a 'tirade', Frank Abramoff. It was a quip that looked largely obscure to a worldwide audience. The world certainly does not revolve around you, sir! What a toad. As for this girl, I think it would be traumatic to have your family ridiculed by a Hollywood star on global telly, but it's also true that the girl would not have been placed in such a position if her father hadn't gone and done some criminal things. As insensitive as it sounds, there's such a thing as a 'fair cop'. The Abramoff family just have to suck it up and cop the ridicule sweet. To suggest they were the offended is like a thief saying he's offended by the sentence handed out to him.
"I understand what it is like to have one's son criticized in a very public way," Clooney told The Desert Sun. "It's very painful and it's very difficult.
"The difference here, and it must be said, is Mr. Abramoff's son, instead of pursing some positive efforts to do what he hoped would change the climate of the American politics, has confessed and has been convicted by that confession of subverting the political process," Nick Clooney said.
"It's not Mr. Abramoff Sr.'s fault that (Jack) turned out to be who he is any more than it is to my credit that my son turned out to be what he turned out to be."
Frank Abramoff said he wasn't planning to watch the Globes, but received calls from friends on the East Coast who saw the show live and suggested that Abramoff turn on the television.
Jack Abramoff's 12-year-old daughter cried when she watched the "tirade," Frank Abramoff wrote.
Purists may complain that the three main geishas are played by Chinese women speaking English, which they were taught to intone in a lightly Japanese accent. It is a shame that a film with so specific a setting could not have leading ladies steeped in that culture. But there's a bald fact that is evident to anyone familiar with today's East Asian films: China is rich in top actresses, and Japan isn't.With all due respect to the great actors who are in this film, does one really believe that they're the only people who could have played those roles on the planet? Or is that another dose of cultural imperialism being dished out by Time magazine? Isn't it possible that the cultural things that click in Japan but don't click in the west are exactly the sorts of things you'd be looking to include in a movie about Japanese cultural mores? Not exclude them?
---(break)---
Lucy Fisher, one of the film's producers, was aware of grumbling about the casting of Chinese actresses as the most prominent geishas. Some of these barbs made it to the set. According to Fisher, Watanabe overheard one such comment. He turned around and stated, "There is no actress in the world who could play this part better than Zhang Ziyi." As Fisher recalls: "That was a happy day for everybody." Watanabe sees Geisha not as a documentary but as fiction woven by its director. "Although it is a period piece based in Japanese culture, what was most important was how Rob envisioned it. So I told myself not to be concerned about the details of the Japanese or geisha culture but try to help Rob create what he envisioned."
Spot the caption...Rushdie told German weekly magazine Stern that his latest novel, "Shalimar the Clown", dealt with the deep anxiety felt among many Islamic men about female sexual freedom and lost honor.That 'Fatwa' truly sucks, no? I'd bomb Tehran on the strength of the stupidity of issuing Fatwas. Forget nukes, the arts must be protected!!
When asked if the book drew a link between "Islamic terror and damaged male honor", Rushdie said he saw it as a crucial, and often overlooked, point.
"The Western-Christian world view deals with the issues of guilt and salvation, a concept that is completely unimportant in the East because there is no original sin and no savior," he said, in comments printed in German.
"Instead, great importance is given to 'honor'. I consider that to be problematic. But of course it is underestimated how many Islamists consciously or unconsciously attempt to restore lost honor."
When asked why he probed the issues in his new novel in the context of a love triangle, he said: "It has a lot to do with sexual fear of women."
Rushdie, 58, said that much of the anger toward the West was provoked by that split on sexual issues.
"(It is) because Western societies do not veil their women. Because they do not defuse this potential danger," he said.
The Indian-born Rushdie, who lives in New York with his fourth wife Padma Lakshmi, told Stern that he has lived without security protection for seven or eight years.
"I go where I please," he said. "I went to India often in the last few years, which I enjoyed."
Rushdie was forced into hiding after the late Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in 1989, calling for his execution because of alleged blasphemy and apostasy in his novel "The Satanic Verses".
The author had a 2.8-million-dollar bounty placed on his head by a Tehran-based foundation
Mission personnel remove a canister, bottom section, containing comet dust as they dismantle the Stardust capsule in a clean room Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006, at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. The seven-year project collected particles from a comet. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)We Have Fallen
The Stardust capsule survived a fiery plunge through the atmosphere early Sunday, parachuting to the Utah salt flats. It bounced three times in soft mud before coming to rest on its side.Two years ago the other probe just went bung on the way down and that was that. It's also the first bit of space rock to be brought back to Earth since the last Apollo Mission to my knowledge.
The landing chipped off a piece of the capsule's heat shield, meant to protect it as it re-enters Earth. But the capsule and its canister were in otherwise good shape, said Joe Vellinga of Lockheed Martin, which built the capsule.
"Everything is very clean. It looks very pristine," Vellinga said Monday.
Stardust's homecoming with the first comet particles ever captured in space was a relief for NASA, whose Genesis space probe carrying solar wind particles crashed and split open in 2004 after its parachutes failed to open. Despite the accident, scientists were able to salvage some of the fragile solar samples for analysis.
It will be the fastest spacecraft ever launched, zooming past the moon in nine hours and reaching Jupiter in just over a year at a speed nearly 100 times that of a jetliner.One of the outcomes of the Space Shuttle scuttlebut and dealys has been that many of the scheduled payloads haave not made their way into orbit. For instance, this European space laboratory here.
Its target is Pluto - the solar system's last unexplored planet, 4.8 billion kilometres from Earth. And the New Horizons spacecraft, set for liftoff on Tuesday, could reach it within nine years.
The US shuttle is the only vehicle that can carry large equipment to the International Space Station and its grounding has left the European Space Agency wondering how else it might send the Columbus research centre into orbit.So that's been drag.
"What we hope is for the Columbus to be launched as quickly as possible," Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency, told a news conference on Monday.
US space agency Nasa halted shuttle flights for more than two years after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas in February 2003, killing seven astronauts.
It launched the Discovery shuttle last July but the fleet was quickly grounded again because of new problems.
The next shuttle flight is tentatively scheduled for May. But Dordain said there are other countries with scientific projects waiting to catch a ride.
"There are others in the queue, notably the Japanese who want their laboratory launched as quickly as possible," he said.
The heavy reliance on orbital hardhat crews to build the station has raised the stakes for each journey out of the hatch. Now "assembly" walks, which last 6 to 8 hours, are packed with chores, and an unfinished job could affect construction for years to come.It's tough up there.
During his time in space, the dangers were secondary, says astronaut and four-time spacewalker Michael Foale. "I'm not anxious about my life. I'm anxious about the task."
There is so much work to do that spacewalkers, who always go outside in pairs, no longer tackle all their tasks together. Instead they split up and may not see each other for hours, "a lonely feeling ... especially at night," Tanner admits.
Adding to the crew's burden, the chill of space will ruin some cold-sensitive parts of the station if they are not quickly installed. So spacewalkers race the clock, knowing that a $500-million piece of equipment could be a pile of space junk if they dawdle.
"The mental stress shouldn't be underplayed," says consultant Leroy Chiao, who left the astronaut corps in December. "When you're out there doing the work, you can't help but feel the pressure."
In a country where vodka is consumed in industrial quantities, officials at Russia's medical space research establishment said the consumption of alcohol in space was not only a right but a positive advantage.
"Folks are flying in orbit for half a year or so," a spokesman said. "They do tons of work. Especially exhausting are space walks where they can lose several kilos in several hours. That's why, many of us think that it won't be that bad to have a little drink to replenish one's strength."
Russian cosmonauts and space officials welcomed the idea of lifting the ban, but cautioned that weightlessness multiplies the effect of alcohol.
Yuri Lanchakov, commander of the Cosmonaut Corps at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow, told the Sunday Telegraph: "Twenty grams of a good cognac [about one pub measure] would be good." He intends to issue a tot to anyone returning after a space walk, and to allow astronauts to drink alcohol to toast New Year.
Champagne, however, will remain prohibited because the pressure could turn bottles into small missiles if opened in the gravity-free atmosphere of the space station.
An official at Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) said: "Not only could the recoil be unpredictable, but the bottle could explode even before you open it."
He welcomed the idea of allowing alcohol on the space station but said "everything should be in moderation" - perhaps remembering how in 1994 President Boris Yeltsin failed to emerge from his plane at Shannon Airport in Ireland after imbibing too much.
A scuba diver injured in a shark attack off Perth says he wrenched his bleeding arm from the predator's jaws and hid in a crevice on the ocean floor until he was rescued.I swear, I'm not making this stuff up. There have been more shark attacks reported this year.
Despite his brush with a 3.5m white pointer yesterday Bernie Williams, of the northern Perth beachside suburb of Sorrento, vowed today to continue diving - with a shark repellant.
He believes it was the arrival of a diving companion with a shark repellant that chased away the great white.
Mr Williams was diving for crayfish yesterday when he was bitten on the left arm by the shark about 5.5km off Perth's City Beach.
"I just felt like I'd been hit by a truck on the side ... and there was a very large shark head hanging off my arm, trying to chew it," Mr Williams told ABC radio.
The predator took Mr Williams for a "bit of a ride" before releasing him to try to take another bite.
But Mr Williams pulled his hand free and shot down to the ocean floor where he hid in a crevice.
"I had a perfect view of it when it came at me the second time, and across its head would have (measured) three or four hundred millimetres," he said.
The shark made several more attempts to attack Mr Williams, disappearing into the gloom and lunging back from different directions, before the arrival of his two diving companions, including one named Brian wearing a shark repellant.
"I think I was actually on the bottom hiding, and being chased around, for the best part of four or five minutes and then I ran into my buddies.
"We all bunched up around Brian, with the shark pod, ... and the shark disappeared."
Blez: Have you gone iPod yet?I don't know about you, but I see no logical reason to get rid of CDs on the basis of having an iPod. Do you? This just sucks. How can a wife *insist* a man get rid of his CDs? What kind of wife is that? Look Billy, you can trade Hudson and Mulder for prospects, but don't trade your CDs for an iPod. Trade your wife for a younger replacement with a higher artistic ceiling!
Beane: Yeah, pretty much entirely. I have hundreds of CDs and my wife has insisted that I get rid of them.
This deformed cyclops kitten was born and lived and died, all in a day. In that time this photo was takn and now it has achieved a kind of weird celebrity status on the net.Fripp, who was a co-founder of the influential band King Crimson and has also worked with Peter Gabriel and Talking Heads, recently spent some time at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington campus "recording the various sounds we'll all hear in Windows Vista", according to a video posted on Microsoft's MSDN Channel 9 website.So Robert Fripp rocks on with Microsoft. Maybe that's another reason to get a PC again when Vistas comes out. Trevor Rabin did work for Mac OS X. What is it about Prog Rock and computer sounds?
Fripp is an electric guitarist noted for his ability to generate futuristic, electronic sounds from his instrument. From the evidence on the video posted on Microsoft's website, "Behind the scenes at [the] Windows Vista recording session", he's shooting for aural effects that wouldn't have been out of place in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey".
"They don't just want it to look good, they want it to sound good, too," said Joe Wilcox, senior analyst at JupiterResearch. "Why have the boring PC 'beep' when even the basic sounds of the operating system can be an experience?"
This isn't the first time Microsoft has aimed at cutting edge sounds. Electronic rock pioneer Brian Eno created many of the tones used in Windows 95. Microsoft also spent millions of dollars to licence the Rolling Stones song "Start Me Up" for use in its ads promoting Windows 95.
"From a rocker perspective, it [hiring Fripp] does show the age of some of the people working on this project," Wilcox said.
The woman lost both arms and suffered severe wounds to her torso and legs in the savage attack at Amity Point about 5pm.This is the third attack in the last few months. It's hardly the case that there's 'rarely' a shark attack. It's averaging to be about once every 3-4 months.
A rescue helicopter rushed her to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital but surgeons could not save her.
It is believed the woman was holidaying from Brisbane. Last night, police were trying to contact her family.
Emergency Services Rescue Helicopter crew officer Rod Morgan said the woman had suffered massive blood loss.
"She was very pale" he said.
"We were diverted right away and were able to be on the scene within minutes and were able to have the patient at hospital within an hour of the attack."
Several distraught witnesses were being interviewed by police at Amity Point last night.
A local woman, who didn't want to be identified, said the victim arrived on the island only yesterday.
She said the victim was swimming with her border collie when the attack happened and the dog ran home to raise the alarm.
"I was across the road from where she was staying and I saw the dog come flying up the road all wet and shivering and whimpering," she said.
"Then a little boy came running up and said the girl had lost her leg and her arm and everyone ran out of the house towards the beach."
She said the frenzied dog had to be restrained.
"It was just a little black-and-white dog but he was crazy so I locked him under the house," she said.
Researchers have gained a major insight into the evolution of cats by showing how they migrated to new continents and developed new species as sea levels rose and fell.Right.
About nine million years ago - two million years after the cat family first appeared in Asia - these successful predators invaded North America by crossing the Beringian land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska, a team of geneticists writes in the journal Science today.
Later, several American cat lineages returned to Asia. With each migration, evolutionary forces morphed the pantherlike patriarch of all cats into a rainbow of species, from ocelots and lynxes to leopards, lions and the lineage that led to the most successful cat of all, even though it has mostly forsaken its predatory heritage: the cat that has induced people to pay for its board and lodging in return for frugal displays of affection.
This new history of the family, known as Felidae, is based on DNA analyses of the 37 living species performed by Warren E. Johnson and Stephen J. O'Brien of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues elsewhere.
Before DNA, taxonomists had considerable difficulty in classifying the cat family. The fossil record was sparse and many of the skulls lacked distinctiveness. One scheme divided the family into Big Cats and Little Cats. Then, in 1997, Dr. Johnson and Dr. O'Brien said they thought most living cats fell into one of eight lineages, based on the genetic element known as mitochondrial DNA.
Having made further DNA analyses, the researchers have drawn a full family tree that assigns every cat species to one of the lineages. They have also integrated their tree, which is based solely on changes in DNA, with the fossil record. The fossils, which are securely dated, allow dates to be assigned to each fork in the genetic family tree.
Knowing when each species came into existence, the Johnson-O'Brien team has been able to reconstruct a series of at least 10 intercontinental migrations by which cats colonized the world. The cheetah, for instance, now found in Africa, belongs to a lineage that originated in North America and some three million years ago migrated back across the Bering land bridge to Asia and then Africa.
Dr. O'Brien said the cats were very successful predators, second only to humans, and quickly explored new territories as opportunity arose. Sea levels were low from 11 million to 6 million years ago, enabling the first modern cats, in paleontologists' perspective (saber-tooth tigers are ancient cats), to spread from Asia west into Africa, creating the caracal lineage, and east into North America, generating the ocelot, lynx and puma lineages.
The leopard lineage appeared around 6.5 million years ago in Asia. The youngest of the eight lineages, which led eventually to the domestic cat, emerged some 6.2 million years ago in Asia and Africa, either from ancestors that had never left Asia or more probably from North American cats that had trekked back across the Bering land bridge.
Sea levels then rose, confining each cat species to its own continent, but sank again some three million years ago, allowing a second round of cat migrations. It was at this time that the ancestors of the cheetah and the Eurasian lynxes colonized the Old World from the New.
Chris Wozencraft, an authority on the classification of carnivorous mammals, said the new cat family tree generally agreed with one that he had just published in Mammal Species of the World, a standard reference. Dr. Wozencraft, a taxonomist at Bethel College in Indiana, based his classification on fossil and zoological information, as well as on DNA data already published by Dr. O'Brien's laboratory.
Cat fossils are very hard to tell apart, because they differ mostly just in size, and the DNA data emerging over the last decade has helped bring the field from confusion to consensus, Dr. Wozencraft said.
Despite their evolutionary success, most of the large cats are in peril because their broad hunting ranges have brought them into collision with people. "With the exception of the house cat and a few other small cat species, nearly every one of the 37 species is considered endangered or threatened," Dr. Johnson and Dr. O'Brien write in the current Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics.
This is what fandom does to a person: I used to copy the handwriting on the cover of the album 'Exposure'; I actually learnt to write 'Robert Fripp' in that odd scrawl and used to sign out library books (and sit for exams as 'Robert Fripp' amongst others) back at High School.13.09Now you can follow the intimate thoughts of Prog Rock God Robert Fripp.
World HQ.
The Minx has just called from Milton Keynes: back to being very nasty to Snow White.
So much stuff, in several places & areas, is waiting that it is tempting to walk away.
Q. What to do when there is so much stuff to do that nothing is possible?
A. One small thing in front of you.
Q. What to do when there’s still so much stuff that one small thing hasn’t changed the pile?
A. Firstly, this is not a question: it is a statement, that nothing has changed. This statement is incorrect: addressing the one small thing has changed everything, although this may not be immediately apparent.
Secondly, do a second small thing in front of you.
15.05 Three small things undertaken. Hey! I’m on a roll. Number Four approaching…
21.45 Well, several small things undertaken.
Plus guitar practising (diatonic arpeggios in D flat major); e-flurrying on all manner of topics – an about-to-be-becoming Guitar Craft Women’s Group, a major bootlegger in Australia, various enquiries & DGMlive matters. Lotsa diverse stuff. Much of it repercussions.
My current overall medium-term Life Aim is Catching Up. This is very broadly based. Living the lives of two very busy men, for most of my professional life, has generated multo repercussions. Many of these repercussions translate into stuff, material stuff, much of which has both personal & intrinsic value. Were I to die tomorrow, or later today even, there would be a huge mess for my executors to clear up; and there would be loss. This aim is to organise & order the material part of my lives, during the next 3-5 years, so that I am better able to address what is required of me before I am able to fly away, an unburdened and happy boy, at whatever age I am allowed.
22.15 A call from Bill Rieflin in Seattle, just as I was closing down the office. Bill is working with Curt today, and will be in England in a fortnight’s time for several gigs – and visiting an ace panto in Milton Keynes. I am on Slow Music call for the West Coast next May, says Director Bill. Yippee! says I.
----
20.46
World HQ.
Dr. Mike & Cherry visited for lunch & team, a highly enjoyable visit for me. Then to practising, drawing up plans for cabinet making, practising, and visiting neighbours en route to World HQ.
An e-flurry is underway at World HQ. The Sidney Smith has sent an MP3 of a bootlegged mystery track that purports to be KC in 1974. It sounds like JW singing, Billy B on drums, even RF on guitar, supposedly from Italy. I have no recollection of this piece of music. So, it’s on its way to JW, Bass Beast of Terror & Vocaliste of Wonderment, for his view. This and several other arising matters.
22.05 Dribble.
----
8.14
World HQ.
An organising & clearing day: at home, the study; at HQ, the kitchen area for builders soon to enter & build an extension. All part of Catching Up.
Now, a call to DGM HQ… Soundscapes For School Aid at All Saints’ Church, Broad Chalke, are go for Saturday 14th. January, 2006 between 12.30 & 14.00. Donations are invited for the local school, which suffered a fire.
Part of this afternoon’s e-flurry, in from John Wetton (in addition to a cake & coffee date in a couple of weeks) is confirmation that the mystery track is actually KC, most likely in Udine, Italy. So, in effect we have a new, unreleased KC track from 1974.
Slow Music, second set from Live At The Croc, is werning away.
In two years, they have traveled a total of seven miles. Not impressed? Try keeping your car running in a climate where the average temperature is 67 below zero and where dust devils can reach 100 mph.The little machines just keep going like the duracell bunny. Watch out for the 'Sophomore jinx', I guess.
These two golf cart-sized vehicles were only expected to last three months.
The rover Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 3, 2004, and Opportunity followed on Jan. 24. Since then, they’ve set all sorts of records and succeeded in the mission’s main assignment: finding geologic evidence that water once flowed on Mars.
Part of the reason for their long survival is pure luck. Their lives were extended several times by dust devils that blew away dust that covered their solar panels, restoring their ability to generate electricity.
Like most Earth-bound vehicles, these identical robots have their own personalities.
The overachieving Opportunity dazzled scientists from the start. It eclipsed its twin by making the mission’s first profound discovery — evidence of water at or near the surface eons ago that could have implications for life.
The rock-climbing Spirit went down in the history books by becoming the first robot to scale an extraterrestrial hill. Last summer, it completed a daredevil climb to the summit of Husband Hill — as tall as the Statue of Liberty — despite fears that it might not survive the weather.
Yes, that fellow of infinite jest and "too many notes".The results of DNA tests carried out on a skull believed to have contained the genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be announced on television as part of Austria's celebration of the composer’s 250th birthday.Hmmm. It's hard to say Vienna was exactly kind to 'Wolfy' according to Peter Schaeffer's play 'Amadeus'. Now they are hoping to feast on his carrion, having lived on the legacy of his music for these many years. Kind of sad, no?
In a documentary entitled Mozart: The Search for Evidence, researchers will reveal the conclusions of tests carried out on the skull at the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Innsbruck last year. DNA from shavings from the skull was compared with genetic material from the thigh bones of Mozart’s maternal grandmother and niece.
Until now, tests on the skull, which belongs to the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, have proved inconclusive, but today Dr Walther Parson, the forensic pathologist who led the analysis said his team had "succeeded in getting a clear result".
Dr Parson said the result had been "100 percent verified" by a US Army laboratory but declined to elaborate.
The skull came into the possession of the Mozarteum in 1902, a century after Mozart's skull was reportedly removed from a communal grave at Vienna’s St Mark’s Cemetery by a sexton who feared it would be lost to bone crushers.
The skull, which is missing a lower jaw, has been the object of several analyses by pathologists and Mozart historians keen to learn the exact circumstances of his death. In 1991, a French scholar who examined it claimed that Mozart may have died of complications of a head injury rather than rheumatic fever as most historians believe.
Pierre-Francois Puech, an anthropologist from the University of Provence, said he had found a fracture on the skull’s left temple, which could help explain the severe headaches the composer was said to have suffered in the year before his death. Other more fanciful stories of the skull say that it screams and sings.
Austria has designated 2006 a Mozart jubilee year, with dozens of events to commemorate his 250 birthday. The composer died in 1791 at the age of 35.
Once I decided guitar was it, it became my mission in life to procure one. Of course these things weren't cheap, and as a kid, I had no idea what the difference was between all the different types in the catalogue (and it must be said in those days, KISS were everywhere in guitar catalogues. You'd think they invented guitar catalogues). I spent a long time wondering and never really got any useful information from anybody. So it was off to the library to do research. In the library was exactly one book on guitars, and it had pictures of Andres Segovia in it, an no electric guiatrs. not even a semi-acoustic.