Koizumi Steps Down, Abe Steps Up

Neo-Nationalist?

Good to his word, Junichiro Koizumi stepped down from the PM's office, having declared some time back that that's what he would do. Stepping into his shoes is Shinzo Abe who has been elected the new Prime Minister of Japan.
Here's the Guardian article.

Fairly or not, Junichiro Koizumi is widely held to have dragged down Japan's relations with former wartime enemies China and South Korea to their lowest level since the 1950s. But the Diet's expected appointment today of Shinzo Abe as his successor as prime minister could stoke east Asian tensions and make matters worse.

Mr Koizumi's main offence, as seen from Beijing and Seoul, was his repeated visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine where convicted war criminals are honoured along with 2.5 million Japanese war dead. The visits were interpreted, for largely political purposes, as proof that Japan had failed to acknowledge past misdeeds. As a result, there have been no full summit meetings between China and Japan since 2001. That is a bit like Britain and Germany refusing to shake hands 61 years after the shooting stopped.

If anything, Mr Abe, a third generation neo-nationalist who, at 52, will be Japan's youngest postwar leader, may take a tougher line than his flamboyant predecessor. He has said that any future prime minister should continue to visit Yasukuni. He also rejects the validity of the Tokyo war crimes trials that followed Japan's 1945 defeat and says, in effect, that Japan has done enough apologising.

Mr Koizumi emphasised close ties to the US, controversially deploying Japanese troops in non-combat missions in Iraq and buying into the Bush administration's global missile defence plans. Mr Abe may go much further. He wants to end, or circumvent, the self-imposed ban on "collective self-defence". That would allow Japan to form "normal" alliances, undertake more overseas military missions, and pursue a more assertive foreign policy.

That approach appeals to Washington which, warily eyeing China's rise, is anxious for regional allies ready to stand up and be counted. But a more expansive Japan could exacerbate problems with Beijing and Seoul, and the US also wants reduced Sino-Japanese tensions. Mr Abe's stated belief that China is a destabilising factor in Asia that "doesn't share basic values like freedom and human rights" is unlikely to help the US achieve these conflicting aims.

Mr Abe's hard line on North Korea's nuclear bomb and missile programmes is another potential flashpoint. Mr Koizumi tried summit diplomacy but made little headway. Mr Abe, in contrast, made his name by fiercely championing the cause of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang. After North Korea's July missile tests, he floated the idea of pre-emptive strikes. Now he is expected to create a special cabinet post for North Korean affairs.

It's worth a read. I'm rather sceptical as to if Mr. Abe is as nationalistic as he article states. For instance, reading through Japanese headlines, one gets the feeling that he's more soft around the edges than his father or Mr. Koizumi. His stance on the Yasukuni Shrine is a lot more fuzzy than his predecessor and he has stated improving relations with China and South Korea are a priority. I think it's pure speculation as to how Mr. Abe is going to go about doing his job. He could do most anything; he might actually do nothing.

As for Mr. Koizumi, I think he is the only PM of Japan in my lifetime that I felt talked straight and shot straight, while actually knowing what it was he was doing. This was no blundering Murayama or all-style-no-substance Hosokawa. It's really a problem for China and South Korea that their governments couldn't find time to talk to him more furing his tenure, as Japanese pollies tend to be a lot more curly and cute. I guess everybody ends up laying in the beds they make.

Baseball Stories

Quote of the Day

This is too funny. The background is this: the Amateur draft for baseball players is going on in Japan. A kid in Okinawa was hoping to be picked by Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, but was actually picked earlier in the draft by Bobby Valentine's Lotte Marines. That's Bobby Valentine doing his dramatic pick up there.
The kid, Ohmine, is in shock.
His highschool manager Mr. Ishimine is reported to have said:

寝耳に水の指名に伊志嶺監督は「豆腐の角に頭をぶつけて死にたい」と苦しい胸の内を吐露した。

That translates as "I want to bang my head against a corner of a tofu and die".

Weird Threats

Back To The Stone Age!!

In breaking news, General Pervez Musharraf says that in the backstage part of history following the 9/11 events, he found himself threatened by US Asst. Secretary fo State Richard Armitage.

In an interview to be aired on CBS television this weekend Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, said the threat was delivered by the assistant secretary of state, Richard Armitage, in conversations with Pakistan's intelligence director.

"The intelligence director told me that (Mr Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the stone age'," Gen Musharraf was quoted as saying. The revelation that the US used extreme pressure to secure Pakistan's cooperation in the war on terror arrived at a time of renewed unease in the US about its frontline ally.

Gen Musharraf told CBS he was stunned at the bluntness of the US approach in the aftermath of the attacks. "I think it was a very rude remark," he said. But he yielded to the request.

I'm sorry for General Musharraf but that's pretty hilarious. "be prepared to go back to the stone age" is like something a bad Hollywood hack writer taps into his 'Screenwriter Magic' software in the wee hours of the mornnig as he decides to call it a night because he can't think of a better line.

Of course it has to be said that parts of Pakistan already looks like it's been bombed back to the Stone Age.

Naturally, Richard Armitage is denying the language, but if you've seen what Richard Armitage is like, you'd have to say he probably did make the 'Stone Age' threat. Yes, it's guilty by suspicon, but heck, what are you going to do? Shoot the interpretter?
Fuck a Duck, idiots are running this world. The question is not "how did 9/11 come about?" but "why doesn't it happen more often?"

Back To Earth, Back To Work

Atlantis Lands
No, I'm not talking about the Red Sox. I'm talking about the Space Shuttle Program which is now rebuilding the momentum it lost in the aftermath ofthe Columbia disaster. Next on the agenda are lifting the components of ISS supplied by the Europeans and the Japanese that have been sitting around in storage.

Here's the latest.

"It's obvious to me that we are rebuilding the kind of momentum that we have had in the past and that we need if we are going to finish the space station," said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin during a postlanding briefing. "We have an awesome task ahead of us.... I think we're going to make it."

That's an assessment that undoubtedly brings a smile to the project's international partners.

"International partners, especially the Japanese and Germans, were crossing their fingers, hoping this mission would pan out," says Ray Williamson, with George Washington University's Space Policy Institute. "If NASA is successful at getting the space station completed, you'll see a lot more openness in Europe and Japan to collaborate with the US in new exploration efforts."

For December's mission, spacewalking astronauts are set to perform tasks that initiate the most complicated phase of station construction, mission planners say. In addition to delivering another truss segment, Discovery's crew will overhaul the electrical wiring and cooling-system plumbing to all of the major US components.

"It would be the equivalent to changing who delivers the electricity and water to your house - not just changing the source, but changing the wires and the pipes coming into the house and being routed around and under the house. It's that significant a change," says Paul Hill, a NASA flight director. "And it's all going to be done outside."

Then come the missions of 2007, during which the shuttle will drop off more basic- infrastructure components. To install them in their permanent locations, space-station crew members will use the station's robotic arm and conduct spacewalks to move existing elements in two high-stakes, slow-motion games of musical modules. At one point, they will have to disable and move the only connector, or node, capable of mating with the space shuttle - critical for resupply and crew exchanges, as well as construction.

If astronauts damage that connector, "the contingency scenarios get kind of ugly," Mr. Hill says. Between December's wiring and plumbing job and the station crew's segment shuffles, the next 12 months will see NASA undertake "the three most complicated things we're going to do in the entire construction of the space station."

It's all smooth-sailing for now.

Lucy's Child

...so to speak. They've dug up a very interesting hominid fossil.

In a discovery sure to fuel an old debate about our evolutionary history, scientists have found a remarkably complete skeleton of a 3-year-old female from the ape-man species represented by "Lucy."

The remains found in Africa are 3.3 million years old, making this the oldest known skeleton of such a youthful human ancestor.

"It's a pretty unbelievable discovery... It's sensational," said Will Harcourt-Smith, a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History in New York who wasn't involved in the find. "It provides you with a wealth of information."

For one thing, it gives new evidence for a contentious feud about whether this species, which walked upright, also climbed and moved through trees easily.

The species is Australopithecus afarensis, which lived in Africa between about 4 million and 3 million years ago. The most famous afarensis is Lucy, discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, a creature that lived about 100,000 years after the newfound specimen.

The new find is reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature by Zeresenay Alemseged of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany; Fred Spoor, professor of evolutionary anatomy at University College London, and others.

Interesting news for those of us interested in early hominids.

The Yankees Win AL East

The Magic Number Was At 1

So Joe Torre sent out a House Money lineup against the Toronto Blue jays which promptly lost 3-2 to Roy Hallladay. It didn't matter because the Bosox folded against the Minnesota Twins and that was that.

The Yankees have now made the playoffs in each of the last 12 seasons, the longest active streak in baseball now that the Atlanta Braves have been eliminated from contention.

“It’s tough to do; it’s really tough to do,” Derek Jeter said. “You look at teams that have won, and they have a tough time getting back to the postseason the next year. You assume every year you’re going to make the playoffs, but it’s not easy to accomplish.”

The Yankees lost right fielder Gary Sheffield on April 29 and left fielder Hideki Matsui on May 11, both to wrist injuries. Sheffield returned briefly in May, but both missed more than three months. Robinson Canó, the dazzling second baseman, missed more than six weeks with a hamstring strain.

Yet the Yankees held on, patching the lineup with role players and rookies until General Manager Brian Cashman landed a star outfielder, Bobby Abreu, in a trade with the Phillies on July

“Every year has its own story,” Torre said. “I don’t think it could be any more dramatic than last year. But this is very satisfying, no question. Even when we lost Matsui and Sheffield and Robby Canó, this ball club never felt it couldn’t win. That’s something you’d like to bottle.”

Still, it never gets old.

Time To Talk About Personal Stuff At Yankeeland
If there's one thing that has marked Joe Torre's time as the Yankee skipper is that we never got to find out much about the dirty laundry in the Yankee clubhouse. In a marked departure, we find that A-Rod has found a new way to become a bad headline by becoming the Lead Story at Sports Illustrated.

Torre hit .363 with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1971 and .289 the following season, giving him a deep understanding of the ebb and flow of performance. With veteran players especially he operates like an old fisherman checking the tide charts, believing that the worst of times only means the best is to come. Rodriguez will hit, he thought, and he kept telling his third baseman exactly that.

Torre's trademark placidity ended, though, when Giambi asked to talk to Torre in Seattle. "Skip," Giambi told Torre, "it's time to stop coddling him."

For all the scorn heaped upon Giambi for his ties to the BALCO steroid scandal, he is a strong clubhouse voice because he plays with a passion that stirs teammates and even opponents. This season, for instance, he reprimanded his former Oakland A's teammate, Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada, for occasionally showing up late to games out of frustration over another losing Baltimore season. "You're better than that," he told Tejada. So Giambi's gripe about Rodriguez sounded an alarm with Torre.

"What Jason said made me realize that I had to go at it a different way," Torre says. "When the rest of the team starts noticing things, you have to get it fixed. That's my job. I like to give individuals what I believe is the room they need, but when I sense that other people are affected, teamwise, I have to find a solution to it."

The players' confidence in Rodriguez was eroding as they sensed that he did not understand how much his on-field struggles were hurting the club. Said one Yankees veteran, "It was always about the numbers in [Seattle and Texas] for him. And that doesn't matter here. Winning is all you're judged on here."

Before Giambi went to Torre, he had scolded Rodriguez after a 13-5 win in Boston on Aug. 19. Irked that Rodriguez left four runners on base in the first three innings against a shaky Josh Beckett, Giambi thought A-Rod needed to be challenged. "We're all rooting for you and we're behind you 100 percent," Giambi recalls telling Rodriguez, "but you've got to get the big hit."

"What do you mean?" was Rodriguez's response, according to Giambi. "I've had five hits in Boston."

"You f------ call those hits?" Giambi said. "You had two f------ dinkers to rightfield and a ball that bounced over the third baseman! Look at how many pitches you missed!

"When you hit three, four or five [in the order], you have to get the big hits, especially if they're going to walk Bobby [Abreu] and me. I'll help you out until you get going. I'll look to drive in runs when they pitch around me, go after that 3-and-1 pitch that might be a ball. But if they're going to walk Bobby and me, you're going to have to be the guy."

It's a gripping read precisely because we've never really read this much about the Yankee clubhouse. Do check it out.
The article has created some ripples, like this thing here at ESPN.

It took Giambi's harsh words to remind A-Rod that his five hits in the Yankees' five-game sweep of the Red Sox in August were all soft ones. It took a rare one-on-one from Torre to force Rodriguez into dropping the pose of serenity. And it may require one more tough-love nudge push from someone on the roster to remind Rodriguez that he's on trial as the playoffs are the gold standard by which the Yankees are judged.

It's why Reggie is allowed to roam the clubhouse when he chooses, engaging today's Yankees in conversation whenever he feels like it. Reggie, having just turned 60, isn't nearly as big or muscular as he seemed in those videos from the '77 World Series. Reggie is smaller in person than you'd think. But as Mr. October, he has lifetime cache, here and everywhere.

Jackson doesn't mind getting in A-Rod's face on occasion. And, to be fair, Rodriguez does listen with respect. He did just that with Giambi, too, suppressing the urge to tell his teammate that, whatever troubles he's encountered as a Yankee, at least he didn't resort to steroids to fix them. But all Giambi was doing was filling a conversational void created by the one Yankee who could have -- and perhaps should have -- confronted A-Rod.

That would be Jeter, of course. If there's anyone who could make Rodriguez understand the difference between greatness and greatness under pressure, it's the guy batting almost .400 with runners in scoring position. But anyone hoping for a Jeter-Rodriguez summit shouldn't hold their breath. The cold war between them is even more pronounced than the one with Mussina. Jeter has never forgiven A-Rod for the disparaging remarks he made in Esquire in 2001, and as one Yankee official said, "there is no coming back from one of Derek's grudges. Once you're gone, you're gone."

What's worrying about this picture is that A-Rod really was hung out to dry on his own stats because he was seen to live and die by stats instead of wins and losses. That last bit about how Derek Jeter slams the door on people that he decides to cut is a bit yucky - that's not to say I haven't done it myself, but it's still a little disappointing. I don't have to do anythig with the Angry Fat Man - Derek's got to play along side A-Rod and try to win the World Series.

Gore Delivers Speech

Better As An Advocate Activist?


Al Gore was here in Australia recently, and now he has delivered an important proposal back in the USA.

NEW YORK, Sept. 18 -- Former vice president Al Gore laid out his prescription for an ailing and overheated planet Monday, urging a series of steps from freezing carbon dioxide emissions to revamping the auto industry, factories and farms.

Gore proposed a Carbon Neutral Mortgage Association ("Connie Mae," to echo the familiar Fannie Mae) devoted to helping homeowners retrofit and build energy-efficient homes. He urged creation of an "electranet," which would let homeowners and business owners buy and sell surplus electricity.

"This is not a political issue. This is a moral issue -- it affects the survival of human civilization," Gore said in an hour-long speech at the New York University School of Law. "Put simply, it is wrong to destroy the habitability of our planet and ruin the prospects of every generation that follows ours."

Gore was one of the first U.S. politicians to raise an alarm about the dangers of global warming. He produced a critically well-received documentary movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," that chronicles his warnings that Earth is hurtling toward a vastly warmer future. Gore's speech was in part an effort to move beyond jeremiads and put the emphasis on remedies.

He took a veiled shot at the Bush administration: "The debate over solutions has been slow to begin in earnest . . . because some of our leaders still find it more convenient to deny the reality of the crisis." But he saluted a Republican, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for helping to push through sharp reductions in carbon emissions.

Gore noted that few politicians of any party are willing to step into the "no politician zone" of tough steps needed to address global warming.

Gore cautioned against looking for a "silver bullet" policy reform that would address global warming, a view many scientists share.

"There are things that you can do today and in the midterm, and things to tend to in the long term," said Gavin A. Schmidt, a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "You have to think on all the scales at once, and even that will only help you avoid the worst scenarios."

---
Gore touched on nuclear power as a palliative for global warming but made it clear that this is at best a partial solution. Nuclear power inevitably raises questions of nuclear arms proliferation, he said.

And he warned against thinking that the recent drop in oil prices offers much help: "Our current ridiculous dependence on oil endangers not only our national security, but also our economic security."

It seeems he's doing a good job persuading people of the seriousness of the issue. I think it's great that he can just air the issue out because he'ss not looking for votes, he's looking to change the cultural landscape in Washington DC surrounding carbon emissions. Kind of goes to show that you need not be the President of the USA to change the world.

Borat Not Funny In Kazakhstan?

National Leader Of Kazakhstan Goes To Washington, World Laughs Along

Borat the Kazakh is a fictional character that is single-handedly destroying the Gross National Cool (what little there was) of the Central Asian nation. Or perhaps he is adding to it through his ridiculous portrait. After all, who knew or cared about anything to do with 'FoSROK' (Former-Soviet-Republic-Of-Kazakhstan) before Borat started telling tall tales?
Here's an article in the SMH.

The problem for the real Kazakhstan is that Borat's fake Kazakhstan is threatening to become better known in the West.

Borat's new film Cultural Learnings of America Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is hitting the cinemas.

This coincidence has not gone unnoticed by Kazakh officialdom or the Western media.

"I can say unambiguously that the question of this film or of the art, let's call it that, of Mr Sacha Baron Cohen, will not be discussed (by Nazarbayev and Bush)," Yerzhan Ashykbayev, a Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a news conference in the capital Astana.

He was responding to reports in several British newspapers suggesting Borat would be top of the agenda when the two leaders meet.

Another problem for Kazakhstan, ruled by Nazarbayev since 1989 and flush with oil reserves, is that its representation of itself often does not live up to the facts on the ground.

Nazarbayev frequently talks about the country's free media but a government-appointed organisation suspended Cohen's http://www.borat.kz site last December.

The Foreign Ministry's Ashykbayev has some form on Borat who has clearly got under the government's skin.

He was the one who last November threatened Cohen with "legal measures" and, in language echoing the Central Asian state's Soviet past, said the ministry did not rule out that the comedian was "serving someone's political order".

That backfired. Dressed as Borat, Cohen, who is Jewish, said: "I like to state, I have no connection with Mr Cohen and fully support my government's decision to sue this Jew."

The government has learnt its lesson. Official pronouncements have since been dull and on message: we understand that it's satire, we just don't like it.

Heh. The funny thing is that there actually is a nation whose international standing is threatened by a single comedian to this degree. I guess this is why totalitarian states try to eliminate comedians along with writers, philosphers, painters, composers, thinkers, playwrights along with strippers and hookers.
As Socrates said, "They'll hang you for irony", but obviously *they* must grab hold of you first.
:)

Atlantis Is Coming Home

The New Routine
The new routine is to check damages to the heat shield. Atlantis has spearated from the ISS and is coming home.

Cape Canaveral, Florida - Atlantis' astronauts gave the ship's wings and nose one last inspection on Monday with a remotely operated TV camera and laser, and Nasa said there appeared to be no damage that would prevent the shuttle from coming home.

Atlantis and its six crew members are set to touch down early on Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Centre after 11 days in space delivering a major addition to the International Space Station and conducting three spacewalks to install it.

The astronauts attached a 15-metre boom to the shuttle's robotic arm to inspect for any damage. The boom has a TV camera and a laser imagery system attached to its end. An identical survey was conducted on Day 2 of the mission.

Monday's inspection was conducted while the shuttle was about 80 kilometres from the space station.

If the astronauts had found the type of damage that could cause a deadly accident, the shuttle would have been able to return to the station. However, the space station had its own problems on Monday.

Space station crew members pulled an alarm and donned protective gear after smelling a foul odour that turned out to be burning rubber and a harmful chemical leaking from an oxygen system.

It all looks well.

Never Enough

The Pope Apologises And Whaddya Know?
The Islam world isn't exactly buying it.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organisation of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, issued a statement on a web forum vowing to continue its holy war against the West. The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified.

The group said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as “the worshipper of the cross” saying “you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword.”

Islam forbids drinking alcohol and requires non-Muslims to pay a head tax to safeguard their lives if conquered by Muslims. They are exempt if they convert to Islam.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, meanwhile, shops, businesses and schools shut down in response to a strike call by the head of a hard-line Muslim separatist leader to denounce Benedict. For the third day running, people burned tires and shouted “Down with the Pope.”

Protests also broke out in Iraq, where angry demonstrators burned an effigy of the pope in Basra, and in Indonesia, where more than 100 people rallied in front of the heavily guarded Vatican Embassy in Jakarta.

Angry reactions also persisted in other corners of the Muslim world, where many demanded more of an apology than Sunday’s statement of regret.

“Muslims have all this while felt oppressed, and the statement by the Pope saying he is sorry about the angry reaction is inadequate to calm the anger,” Malaysian foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar said.

In the Middle East, where Muslims threw firebombs at seven churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the weekend, Christian leaders posted guards outside some churches.

“We are afraid,” said Sonia Kobatazi, a Christian Lebanese, after Mass at the Maronite Christian St George Cathedral in Beirut, Lebanon, where a dozen policemen carrying automatic weapons stood guard.

Catholic bishops who met in Istanbul yesterday decided the Pope’s visit to Turkey in November should go ahead.

George Marovic, spokesman for the Vatican in Turkey, said the trip was expected to be held as planned and the bishops had discussed details of a religious ceremony the pontiff is to lead in Istanbul.

A chorus of voices in Turkey has been calling for Pope Benedict XVI to cancel his visit — his first to a Muslim country as pontiff –—if he does not apologise for his remarks, which have been interpreted as derogatory to Islam.

State minister Mehmet Aydin, who oversees religious affairs in Turkey, said that he expected Turkish authorities to cancel the pope’s visit if Benedict did not offer a full apology.

“We are expecting the authorities to unilaterally cancel this visit. The Pope’s coming to Turkey isn’t going to foment the uniting of civilisations, but a clash of civilisations,” Mr Aydin said.

This is the problem with 'apologies'. EVERYBODY screaming for a apology says, "that's not good enough" when they finally get one. One wonders why anybody should ever apologise, and I mean, ever.
My advice to future generations: If the juggernaut of history runs you over, deal with it. We can't all be Brad Pitt and bang Angelina Jolie AND Jennifer Aniston.

Militants Choose To Behave Militantly
I don't know how else to describe this totally pedestrian response by people with guns and motivation.

Al-Qaeda militants in Iraq have vowed war on "worshippers of the cross" and protesters burned a papal effigy over Pope Benedict's comments on Islam, while Western churchmen and statesmen are trying to calm passions.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei joined a chorus of Muslim criticism of the head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, calling the pope's remarks "the latest chain of the crusade against Islam started by America's Bush."

In New York, US President George W Bush said the pope was sincere in his apology.

The Pontiff said on Sunday he was deeply sorry that Muslims had been offended by his use of a medieval quotation on Islam and holy war. But he stopped short of retracting a speech seen as portraying Islam as a religion tainted by violence.

While some Muslims were mollified by his explanation for the speech made in Germany last week, others remained furious.

"We tell the worshipper of the cross (the pope) that you and the West will be defeated, as is the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya," said a web statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella group led by Iraq's branch of al-Qaeda.

"We shall break the cross and spill the wine," said the statement, posted on Sunday on an internet site often used by al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

In Iraq's southern city of Basra, up to 150 demonstrators chanted slogans and burned a white effigy of the pope.

"No to aggression!," "We gagged the pope!," they chanted in front of the governor's office in the Shi'ite city.

In Egypt, a parliamentary committee called for the expulsion of the Vatican envoy if the pope did not apologise and in Kuwait Muslim clerics said his Sunday address "does not amount to an apology because he said Muslims had misunderstood his speech."

"He must declare frankly he made a mistake and must pledge not to repeat such false accusations against Islam," they said.

Criticisms were also made by Muslims in the United States, China, Indonesia, and by Chechen and Azeri Muslims.

It's amazing (and yet amazingly predictable) how thin-skinned and wronged-upon the Muslim world likes to be. This offense, that comment, this insult, that slight. You would think they were collectively a humourless, unempathic, overly-proud-for-so-little achivement sort of angry, fat guys with beards and guns. They may not be - they might be gaunt for all I care - but that's how they're behaving. :)

It's been hard to find a copy of the actual speech, but here it is.
The offending bit reads like this:

In the seventh conversation ("diálesis" -- controversy) edited by professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the jihad (holy war). The emperor must have known that sura 2:256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion." It is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under [threat]. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Koran, concerning holy war.

Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels," he turns to his interlocutor somewhat brusquely with the central question on the relationship between religion and violence in general, in these words: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably ("syn logo") is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats.... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...."

The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: Not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practice idolatry.

As far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we find ourselves faced with a dilemma which nowadays challenges us directly. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true?

Umm. Surprised? I am.
I am not a Christian, let alone a Catholic but I am having immense difficulty construing a masssive insult to the Muslim world from this section. He's talking about ideas in history and it's explicitly clear they are not his views, let alone views he is holding right now as the Pope.

I'd be curious to know how exactly incriminating this is, theologically speaking, and whether these angry Muslims have actually read the damn thing before they mouth off these threats. My guess is, not at all, and that lowers my estimation of them as men.

As for the Pope, you also sort of wonder if this is the time to mention that adage about offering the other cheek and all that, given that the Holy See is nominally Christian and all that. Showus some of that Christian style.

Jihad, Anybody?

The Idiotic Face Of Terror, 1995 Style
Shoko Asahara Gets Death Penalty

Shoko Asahara finally got a judgement passed in the Aum Supreme Truth Sect trial.
He got the death penalty.

地下鉄サリンなど１３事件で殺人など６つの罪に問われ、１審で死刑を言い渡されたオウム真理教麻原彰晃被告（５１＝本名松本智津夫）について、最高裁第３小法廷（堀籠幸男裁判長）は１５日、控訴趣意書の提出遅延を理由に裁判を打ち切った東京高裁の決定を支持、弁護側の特別抗告を棄却する決定をした。２７人の命を奪う未曽有の事件を引き起こした責任を問う裁判は、初公判から１０年５カ月、控訴審が一度も開かれないまま終結。同被告の死刑が確定した。

　堀籠裁判長は決定理由で、これまでの医学鑑定や１審判決以降の拘置所内での動静などから麻原被告の訴訟能力を認めた同高裁決定について「正当」と認定。弁護側の「被告は心神喪失状態にある」との主張を否定し、被告は詐病と断定した。さらに麻原被告に対し「自ら弁護人と意思疎通を図ろうとせず、それがこのような事態に至った大きな原因になった。その責任は弁護人のみならず、被告にもある」と指摘した。決定は４裁判官全員一致の意見。

　麻原被告は今年３月末、高裁の控訴棄却を伝えられると、「おれはみんな無実だ。おれじゃない。おれははめられた。ねつ造だ」などと叫んだという。同被告は１審で死刑判決を受けた０４年２月２７日にも「なぜなんだ、ちくしょう」と拘置所内で叫んでいる。弁護側は、麻原被告とコミュニケーションがとれたことがなく「おれは無実だ」などと叫ぶはずがないと反論したが、最高裁は「控訴棄却の決定文の意味を理解している」と判断したもようだ。

　弁護側は「被告には訴訟能力がなく、意思疎通もできない」として東京高裁に公判停止を申し立て、最終期限の昨年８月末までに控訴趣意書を提出しなかった。今年３月２７日、高裁は被告の訴訟能力を認め、刑事訴訟規則で控訴趣意書提出の遅延が例外的に認められる「やむを得ない事情」はないとして、控訴を棄却した。弁護側は翌３月２８日に控訴趣意書を提出しており、いわば、弁護側の遅延行為に対し高裁の堪忍袋の緒が切れた形だった。

　この点についても最高裁は「昨年８月末の提出期限が延長された事実はなく、期限の当日、弁護側は控訴趣意書を作成したと明言しながら、裁判所の再三の提出勧告に対し『裁判所の精神鑑定方法に問題がある』などとして提出しなかった。やむを得ない事情があったとは到底認められない」とした。

　弁護団はこの日、最高裁の決定に「意思疎通さえできない精神状態であることを無視している。ずさんで真摯（しんし）さに欠け不当だ。強く抗議する」との声明を出したが、高裁の強い態度を読み切れなかった弁護団の見通しの甘さ、戦術ミスが今回の結果を招いたといえる。弁護団などは今後、再審請求を検討するとみられる。

　一方、麻原被告はこの日午後３時半ごろ、刑務官から死刑確定を知らされた。関係者によると、座ったまま腕を組んだり、体を揺すったりしながら黙って聞いていたという。

The creepy guy that he is, he never went into any discussions with his lawyers, and never really discussed his side of the story. He was probably aiming for the insanity plea, but the supreme court judges didn't buy it. After it was reported that he yelled out "I'm innocent. It wasn't me. I'm being framed. It's a set up", the judges decided that he knew the charges levelled agianst him exactly, and therefore was no insane. Once that was decided, it was a speedy verdict and they've even thrown out the appeal.

The damn shame of it all is that we'll never get to find ou the rest of the inner workings of the Aum Supreme Truth Set and they weird and wacky plots. On the other hand, there are plenty of crazy mullahs out there inciting a jihad, so the world isn't exactly short of 'religeous crazy'.

Meanwhile...

The Pope Mouths Off
'Pope Ratz', or more commonly 'Pope Benedict XVI' has eggs benedict on his face after making some nasty speeches about Islam.

"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." These were not the Pope's words, but those of an obscure Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologos, back in the 14th century. And yes, the Pope did make it clear he was offering a quotation. Even so, these words fell from the lips of the spiritual leader of a billion Christians without anything like enough qualification. There was no phrase distancing himself from the claim that Muhammad was responsible for evil. It's little surprise, therefore, that the remarks have roused anger and demands for a personal apology.

So, he's quoting somebody, but that's a bit dodgy. It's caused a furore in 24hours, but of course, after all that, he goes making another churlish speech about the Islamists of the world, again.

The Pope on Tuesday repeated criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything Mohammad brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

The Pope, who used the terms "jihad" and "holy war" in his lecture, added "violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul".

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi defended the Pope's lecture and said he did not mean to offend Muslims.

"It was certainly not the intention of the Holy Father to undertake a comprehensive study of the jihad and of Muslim ideas on the subject, still less to offend the sensibilities of Muslim faithful," Lombardi told Vatican Radio.

A high-ranking Church source expressed fears for the Pope's safety, saying: "While I think the controversy will go away, it has done damage and if I were a security expert I'd be worried."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Bild newspaper the aim of the Pope's speech had been misunderstood.

"It was an invitation to dialogue between religions ... What Benedict XVI emphasised was a decisive and uncompromising renunciation of all forms of violence in the name of religion," she was quoted as saying in an article to appear on Saturday.

The Koran endorses the concept of jihad, often translated as holy war, but Muslims differ on conditions for it, with some saying it applies only for self-defence against external attack.

Yep, nice way to start a 'conversation' there Ratz-buddy. I always start my conversations with, "What you believe in, totally sucks," too. :)

Or dare we say, we smell the anti-semitic Nazi we suspected he was? However, having put our knee-jerk boot into Ratz, let's look at this obejctively. Did Manuel Paleologas II say this stuff? Probably? If you quote somebody, does it mean you support what they say? Probably not. So there's just enough grey-area ground to claim "hey, it wasn't me, I'm just repeating the message to kick off a discussion."
Benefit of the doubt, innocent until proven... what, sinful?
Maybe he's not being a Nazi. Bummer.

Either way, if one were a Catholic, one would/could/should find the fact that the Pope is mouthing fighting words is a rather dangerous development. Here's another Guardian piece.

The Pope perhaps did not imagine that an erudite lecture delivered to the university where he once taught that included a reference to a dialogue between a 600-year-old Byzantine emperor and a Persian Muslim would become the latest spark to reignite the tension between Islam and Christianity. But even if Benedict XVI, despite his reputation for meticulous preparation, had failed to appreciate the impact of his thoughts, his advisers should have. Urbane and intellectual as he is said to have been, Manuel II Palaeologus (1350-1425) was hardly an impartial observer of Islam. As a boy, he had been held prisoner by the Turks, and his dialogues took place as his inheritance lay in jeopardy to the Ottoman empire, and his capital under siege. No academic impartiality lay behind the assertion, repeated by the Pope in his lecture in Regensburg earlier this week, that all that was new in Muhammad's thought was "evil and inhuman", citing conversion under threat of the sword as an example. The Pope used this to kick off a discussion of God and reason rather as a parish priest might casually preface his Sunday homily with a reference to the storyline of EastEnders. It is unsurprising that it caused offence.

There might have been less protest had Benedict a clearer record in favour of dialogue with Islam. As a cardinal in the Holy See, he was known to be sceptical of John Paul II's pursuit of conversation. One of his earliest decisions as pope was to move archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, one of the Catholic Church's leading experts on Islam, and head of its council on interreligious dialogue, away from the centre of influence in Rome, and send him to Egypt as papal nuncio. Benedict has spoken publicly of Christianity as the cornerstone of Europe and against the admission of Turkey into the EU. But he has also accepted an invitation from Turkey's president to make the first-ever papal visit in November. That visit, which could have been a symbol of his commitment to the reconciliation and respect between religions of which he has also spoken, may now be at risk. The Pope has lived a cloistered life, rarely exposed to the unholy nuances of world politics. He needs advisers around him who are. However, the Vatican has apologised. That should be enough for what was almost certainly nothing more than an ill-judged remark. For there is a second strand to this argument. There cannot be dialogue without rigor and openness. The Muslim world should also take pains to be thoughtful in its response, and perhaps less quick to take offence.

Well, taking offense is easy. Bang your drum loudly in outrage, and drum up some more business. Outrage and wowser-ism are the twin fuels of zealotry.

UPDATE: Here's a REALLY interesting entry atthe Guardian.

There are two further motives for thinking Benedict is ready to upset the believers in other faiths rather than shrink from what he believes needs to be said (or not said).

First, he has done it before. At Auschwitz, in May, he appalled many Jews by passing up what they saw as a historic opportunity for a German pope to apologise for the Roman Catholic church's conduct in the second world war. The second factor is that Pope Benedict has signalled clearly that he favours a tougher line in his church's dealings with Islam.

The key word in the Vatican now is "reciprocity". The leadership of the Roman Catholic church is increasingly of the opinion that a meaningful dialogue with the Muslim world is not possible while Christians are denied religious freedom in Muslim states.

Yep. Another reason why separating Church and State is very, very important. Who wants their beliefs to be held hostage by these folks?

Today's Headlines

"Bionic Woman"



The world's first bionic woman Claudia Mitchell didn't even know about the 1970s show when she heard the term.

When her doctors first called her "The Bionic Woman," 26-year-old Claudia Mitchell didn't understand the reference to the 1970s TV show about the secret agent who was part woman, part machine.

Besides, the first woman to be outfitted with a bionic arm says that when the motors are running in the 10-pound device, it reminds her of another famous cyborg - Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Terminator.

"It's really cool," she says. "This is not just something in the movies. This is really happening." Mitchell, a former U.S. Marine, lost her left arm in 2004 on an Arkansas highway when the friend she was riding with lost control of his motorcycle.

As she struggled to cope with the loss of the limb, she read a Popular Science story about Jesse Sullivan, a Tennessee man who received the first bionic arms at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago after losing his in an electrical accident in 2001.

"I said, 'I've got to have one of those,' " Mitchell says.

Last year she had surgery and received an arm that's even more advanced than Sullivan's. Today, in a Washington, D.C., news conference with National Institutes of Health officials, Mitchell will show off her skills with the arm developed in a $4 million project funded largely by the NIH.

Though recent prosthetic research has focused on implanting sensors that link devices to movement commands from the brain, Mitchell was drawn to the less-invasive work in Chicago.

"Most people have been looking at trying to tap into the brain, but that has a number of challenges," says Todd Kuiken, who heads neural engineering at the Chicago institute. Implants are "becoming more doable, but if something breaks you have to have surgery to fix it. The exciting thing about this technique is we are not implanting anything into her body."

Kuiken found a way to use chest muscles to connect the prosthetic to nerves that once sent signals to the hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder. After an amputation, the brain still thinks the arm is there. It feels sensations and sends signals to move. But those signals are too weak for modern mechanics to detect from the surface of the skin, so Kuiken's team amplified them.

First, plastic surgeon Greg Dumanian of Northwestern Memorial Hospital moved the targeted nerves into muscles in Mitchell's chest. Then, the nerves that cause the motion of those muscles were disconnected. Mitchell can no longer send a signal to flex her pectoral muscle, but when she wants to close her hand or bend her elbow, the nerve impulse moves her "pec."

When that muscle moves, it sends a signal strong enough for a sensor on the skin to detect. After some rewiring by Dumanian, six muscles in Mitchell's chest now move six motors in the bionic arm.

And nerve data flow up, too. When Kuiken touches a certain spot on Mitchell's chest, she feels him touch her hand, even though it's no longer there.

There is much still to sort out. Though Mitchell can perform a simple task such as folding a pair of pants without first stretching them out on a flat surface, Kuiken calls the arm clumsy. Both he and Mitchell say they are optimistic about making the prosthetic - hers and future versions - more sensitive and precise.

"We hope to be able to close the loop with Claudia and have the sensation be there so that when she touches something, she feels a touch of her hand," Kuiken says. Mitchell, who hopes to go to college next year to study communications, says she is proud to be part of the team. "I am really excited about the prospects of being able to, hopefully, pave the way to make this something that is more common," says Mitchell, a volunteer at Washington, D.C.-area military hospitals.

Until today, her role in the bionic research project has been shrouded in secrecy. But now, the former Marine who served in Kuwait can tell the amputees she counsels about her arm and the research.

Cyberpunk is just around the corner.

ISS Spreads Its Solar Panels


The crew of Space Shuttle Atlantis are looking to do one more spacewalk.

Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, the pair who did the first spacewalk on Tuesday, are going out for the third and final excursion this morning.
"You just can't imagine a flight going as well as this one has gone," said lead space station flight director John McCullough. The astronauts have been working on installing a new addition to the space station, the first since the 2003 Columbia disaster. "I couldn't ask for a better start - a re-start - to assembly," McCullough added.
The US$372 million addition consists of two solar panel wings that will eventually provide a quarter of the space station's power when it's completed by 2010. They won't generate any electricity, though, until the next space mission - slated for December - when the power system is rewired.
On Friday's spacewalk, Tanner and Piper will be unpacking a radiator that will later be used to dissipate the heat generated by electronics on the newly installed solar panels.
They'll spend the rest of the roughly 6 1/2 hours with tasks like replacing an antenna and picking up science experiments.

All's well that works well.

Today's Guff

New Link
Gra-gra, a.k.a. 'Jeronimus' is now penning a weblog. It's called 'Thoughts From An Ownerless Mind'. I have added a link in the right column.

I don't know what exactly he's going to write about, but it started off when we were having an e-mail discussion about rightwing nutbar pundits and the seemingly endless platforms they get to voice their unhelpful opinions, inflicting their hateful thoughts on people. So I suggested he start his own weblog rather than write letters to these pundits because, it would be impossible to change their minds on anything. The result is the weblog you see when you click that link.

It's very mysterious so far. :)

The Who Hit The Road Once More


Here's the article.

The legendary British rock band which came to prominence in the early 1960s with songs about youthful rebellion and alienation has only two of its original members -- singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend.

Two other members of the original band -- drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle -- died in drug-related incidents.

The gray-bearded Townshend, 61, periodically pumped up the capacity crowd at South Philadelphia's Wachovia Center with his classic arm-twirling power-chord style while Daltrey, 62, looking younger in jeans and a plain blue T-shirt, belted out the lyrics of The Who's extensive back catalog.

The band, also consisting of Townshend's brother Simon on guitar, Ringo Starr's son Zak Starkey on drums, Pino Palladino on bass and John Bundrick on keyboards -- fluently delivered many crowd-pleasing anthems including "Won't Get Fooled Again," "My Generation," "Baba O'Riley" and "Behind Blue Eyes."

But they were less confident playing material from the forthcoming "Endless Wire" album, their first since 1982. They were clearly unhappy with a seven-song "mini-opera" from the album, and apologized several times for what they saw as less-than-perfect renditions of that and other new songs.

"Thank you for putting up with it. I know it's tough to hear new music," Townshend told the crowd.

The new material, such as the Dylanesque "Man in a Purple Dress" suggested a departure from the classic Who style and the concert featured two duets with just Townshend and Daltrey, providing a contrast to the high-volume rock that some critics see as a precursor to the punk rock of the late 1970s.

Despite forays into the 21st century, The Who seemed firmly rooted in the 1960s, an impression strengthened by nostalgic black-and-white videos of 1960s memorabilia and rock icons including Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley.

The band's focus on their classic songs seemed to please the crowd, some of whom came to relive their college days. Bob Paul, 51, a lawyer, said he had first seen The Who in 1973 when he was a freshman in college, and stayed up all night to get tickets.

This is bad taste, but then all of rock is bad taste. I don't know how to defend this, let alone get behind it. I guess it is simply just what it is.

The Big Thurman Musnon Debate


The folks at BTF hace devised domething called the Hall of Merit, where people vote for who should be remembered 'on merit' as opposed to fame, which is suspect to media influence.
Thurman Munson is eligible for the vote and is ccausing this stink. Here's a nicely reasoned entry at post 14:

Well, the lack of career value is due to extenuating circumstances: namely, his death. I can understand that some voters don't give out extra credit to guys who died. No problem. But it's pretty insulting to then penalize the same player for a short career, as several have suggested doing. Who wrote "he had a short career, even for a catcher"? Of course Munson had a short career. But it wasn't because he quit. And it wasn't because of a drastic decline in skills. It was because he died.

Now, most of us are going to judge Munson solely by what he accomplished in the time he had. That's all I'm suggesting we do. But look at Dr. Chaleeko's post #13. Munson dominated AL catchers of the 1970s the same way that Bill Freehan dominated AL catchers of the 1960s. And he was the only dominant catcher in the AL between Freehan and Rodriguez. Now, there are some flaws with that argument. When Freehan was dominating AL catchers during the '60s, he was coming pretty close to dominating MLB catchers as only one of his top contemporaries was in the other league (Torre). And many would say that Freehan was better than Torre. When Munson was dominating AL catchers during the '70s, he wasn't dominating MLB catchers as the other league had at least one superior catcher (Bench) and sometimes two (Carter). So Freehan's dominance may stand out more than Munson's. Also, the gap between Munson and Rodriguez can be explained by the AL having more than one quality catcher. Neither Simmons nor Parrish could dominate the league for that length of time because they were playing at the same time as the other. And I'm sure Fisk had some good years during that same decade. So I see some flaws in Dr. Chaleeko's pro-Munson argument.

However, I'm left with this impression: Munson's prime is every bit as good as Freehan's, or as Elston Howard's. If they're HoMers, then so is Munson. He's not a slam dunk candidate. He's not Johnny Bench or Yogi Berra or Ivan Rodriguez. And he probably won't make my ballot this cycle (Freehan and Howard are just off as well). But he is worthy of consideration. And he shouldn't be dismissed too easily because of "a short career."

Taking the negative side are predictably Red Sox fans who want to pimp for Carlton Fisk; except Carlton Fisk isn't eligible yet.

I guess the 1978 'Boston Massacre' and the Bucky Dent homerun and all that has scarred many a Boston Red Sox fan for life. Now they want their petty little own back by saying "He wasn't good as our guy Carlton Fisk; it was a hair's margin but really a hair that separates true greatness and utter failure". I guess it's a pain that keeps on giving for them, because it's a joy that I have never really lost when I reflect upon 1978.

Thurman Munson probably does not belong in any Hall of Merit - He belongs in the "Hall of Great Yankees Who Made The Lives of Boston Fans Truly Miserable."
Now that's a Hall I can get behind.

ISS Build Conitnues

Atlantis Has Docked With The ISS


Here's the article.

Two spacewalking astronauts began installing on Tuesday the first big addition to the international space station in more than 3½ years, and NASA pronounced the outing a success, even though a small bolt floated off and got lost.

“I felt today like this is what NASA is supposed to do,” lead space station flight director John McCullough. “This is what we're here to do.”

Wearing bulky suits and gloves, the two Atlantis astronauts ventured outside to begin attaching a new 17½-ton box-like truss section that the space shuttle delivered earlier this week. The job involved connecting 17 wires or tubes and tightening or loosening 167 bolts.

Astronaut Joe Tanner was working with a 1½-inch bolt with an attached spring, when the washer holding it in fell off. The bolt and spring floated over the head of astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and skittered across the truss.

While the washer went out into space harmlessly, Tanner worried the bolt and spring could get into the truss's wiring and tubing and cause problems.

“I just hope that bolt is on its way to Mother Earth right now and not on its way” to a crucial joint, Tanner said.

Even though NASA didn't have any video showing the bolt missing the mechanism, officials said they are certain that the bolt flew off into space harmlessly.

Err, yeah, that last bit's a little scary, but it seems all is progressing well.

H2A Flight 10

JAXA Launch A Success




JAXA launched the 10th H2-A Rocket yesterday.

当初は１０日午後に打ち上げる予定だったが、悪天候が予想されたため延期していた。全長５３メートルのロケットは燃焼済みの部分を切り離しながら高度４００〜６００キロに達した後、衛星を南北に周回する軌道に乗せる。打ち上げ費用は衛星を除いて９６億円。

　情報収集衛星は、９８年の北朝鮮によるミサイル「テポドン」発射を機に国が導入を決めた事実上の偵察衛星。計画では、地球上のどの地点でも一日１回は監視できるようにするため、高性能の望遠カメラを備えた光学衛星と、電波で地上の様子を探るレーダー衛星を２基ずつ運用する。

　まず０３年３月にＨ２Ａ５号機で各１基を同時に投入したが、同１１月の６号機の打ち上げ失敗で残り２基を失い、機能半減の状態が続いていた。今回打ち上げたのは光学衛星で、地上にある１メートル程度の物体を見分けられるという。衛星の大きさや外観、詳しい軌道などは安全保障上の理由から公表されていない。

The launch, originally scehduled for the tenth, was delayed due to bad weather. The 53m long rocket flew to a hecight of 400-600km while separating stages, launching the satellite into a north-south orbit. Thee launch cost US$ 90million excluding the satellite costs.

The satellite is specifically to carry out surveillance on North Korea who have been a regional threat since the launch of its Tepodong missile in 1998. The satellit uses both opitcal and radar for its surveillance. Orbit details, appearance and size are a secret for security reasons.

Lookng at the photos, it seems Flight 10 was launched from LPT 1, just like Flight 9.

Dumb And Dumber

Proof We Are Governed By Illogical Morons
Al Gore is in Australia with the feature documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth'. You know what it's about. In response, we find this article.

Mr Howard is sceptical about the more gloomy predictions of the effects of global warming, but Mr Gore said that stance was not winning the prime minister any allies.

"He's increasingly alone in that view among people who've looked at the science," he told ABC Television.

Mr Gore compared the prime minister's position with the centuries-old opinion that the earth was flat.

"There's no longer a debate over whether the earth is round or flat," he said.

"Though there are some few people who still think it's flat, we generally ignore that view because the evidence has mounted to the point where we understand that it shouldn't be taken seriously."

Mr Howard maintains that signing up to Kyoto would hurt local industry and send Australian jobs offshore.

He said he might watch the documentary at some point, but would not meet Mr Gore while he was in Australia.

That's nice Mr. Howard.
It's a probelm of this country that we haven't educated or trained our people to suit the changing times. If their jobs are likely to be lost simply by putting a cap on carbon emissions, then you sir have miserably failed your people in governing this nation.
What is even worse in the dumb-and-dumber-stakes is what the Australian Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane had to say:

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has dismissed the film as "just entertainment" and says he will not take advice from a failed presidential candidate.

Mr. Macfarlane, you sir are a complete and utter idiot unworthy of being a minister of anything if you think that the work Mr Gore has put into his presentation is "just entertainment"; you are an even bigger moron yet if you think that Mr Gore's arguments automatically carry no weight because he had lost an election, let alone had it stolen from him. The mere fact that that is all you have to say to discredit the man shows your paucity of thought, your inability to comprehend the most concrete facts, your lack of information and knowledge, your prejudice againsst gaining information and knowledge, and your total inability to participate in an informed discourse in a civilised state. Just how you managed to come to holding such a high office is an utter mystery. The best thing to have happen to Australia this week would have been for you to have been stung by the stingray that claimed Mr Irwin's life, instead of the good Mr. Irwin. I sincerely hope you find this entry when you narcissistically google your own name and that you take my good advice and leave politics for the good of the country.

*Ugh* The stupidity, the stupidity...

Proof That Our Elite Don't Fly That High
I caught the 'At The Movies' show with David and Margaret covering 'An Inconvenient Truth'. In it was this atrocious exchange:

MARGARET: David, it's done very lucidly, the graphics are great, you know, if this is fact, then it's pretty scary. But what I want to know is, you know, if there is doubt about what Gore is claiming...

DAVID: Well, some people have attacked the film.

MARGARET: Right, well, I mean surely it's possible to set up a body that doesn't have any vested interest in either outcome, you know, that just wants to know the truth and finding out what the truth is. I mean, it can't be a scientific stretch to discover whether we're losing the polar ice caps.

DAVID: Well, you certainly wouldn't think so. But, I mean, looking at a film like that, it's very well argued. Now, okay, it's attackers might say it's being too exaggerated etc, etc, but if there's any doubt, if there's any doubt, this is the earth we're talking about and future generations. Would you not...

MARGARET: Well, I actually think we owe it to our kids and our grandkids to find out the truth, and, you know, I mean a lot of money ought to be put into finding out the truth of this situation. I mean, it's very easy to get people's gander up with a documentary like this, and I think it's been very well done, but, the truth of the situation is significant, and that's what this documentary ought to do. It ought to galvanise people in power to discovering the truth.

It was a most awkward exchange because of the way Ms. Pomeranz just blurted out what sounded like an abjection to the horror of global warming. For heaven's sakes, what exactly could she mean when she says, "Right, well, I mean surely it's possible to set up a body that doesn't have any vested interest in either outcome, you know, that just wants to know the truth and finding out what the truth is. I mean, it can't be a scientific stretch to discover whether we're losing the polar ice caps"?
Excuse me? One wonders where Ms. Pomeranz has been in the last 25 years. Mr. Gore's presentation, while alarming, is the acrretion of the best scientific data that are available to us.
To be fair, the 'At The Movies' website has this addendum:

FROM MARGARET:
"The overwhelming response we have received from our viewers about our review of Al Gore's AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH has been fantastic. Many of you have written to me and pointed out that the kind of body that I had lamented about does in fact exist. I have been directed to many websites and books and I thank you for making all these suggestions. In this respect, the documentary has done its job in creating discussion and highlighting that fact that we all need to take this matter to heart - as one of our viewers said, "Our future is in our hands."

See below for the link to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)which many of you suggested.

http://www.ipcc.ch

The fact that confronting the facts is so uncomfortable does not in any way make it okay or acceptable or intellectually sound to be a global warning sceptic at this point in history. That moment passed 15 years ago. Gaaaaagh!!!!!
Not only is Australia a cultural backwater, clearly, it is an intellectual one too.

UPDATE:
I was trawling along BTF as I do everyday and I found this lovely quote:

pfft, anyone can use facts to prove points.

I laughed out loud.
It's gallows humour, but the same sarcasm applies to Mr. Gore somewhat. It's too easy arguing the facts. You need to argue somthing extraordinarily wrong to get noticed as a great arguer.

The fact is, you are dealing with obstinate idiots who think politics is all there is in this world, that the abstract is somehow representative of reality and therefore the suitable manipulation of abstraction gives rise to solving problems in the real world. The stupidity of this assumption is what lies at the foundation of our political leaders, left and right.

That Day, Again

September 11 Remembered
It's that time of year again to cast our minds back to one of the most amazing and asttounging events in memory. This was no Olympic Game or a World Series Three-pete, this was no Hollywood blockbuster with dazzling special effects, this was the real deal.

Here's the AP take on the topic, amid reports that videos featuring Osama Bin Laden have surfaced.

Heinz Fromm, Germany's domestic intelligence chief, said earlier this year that bin Laden's group had been degraded into a "diffuse, amorphous organization." He added: "One today cannot talk any longer of a central leadership role of al-Qaida."

Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at Sweden's Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies, said the West has consistently misunderstood the nature of the enemy it faces, attributing to al-Qaida a level of control and leadership over local radical groups that it simply does not have.

"We in the West tend to look for structure where there is none. We talk about the terror CEO, or the al-Qaida franchise, and that is completely misleading in terms of the amorphousness of the adversary we're facing," he said. "In fact, there hasn't been any correlation or firm evidence that al-Qaida knew about or participated in any of the attacks since Sept. 11."

But Ranstorp and other counterterrorism experts caution that there is no cause for celebration. Progress against the core of al-Qaida has been overshadowed by a steady stream of deadly bombings by local groups, many of them Muslim extremists inspired to take up bin Laden's apocalyptic call.

In attack after attack, homegrown militants have shown they are capable of massive destruction, with or without al-Qaida's help.

More importantly. Osama bin Laden is still at large, being our generation's Goldstein.
And so, five years on, one wonder what those five years have meant.

Atlantis Blasts Off Finally

After Many Weather Delays



Atlantis is off and flying.

After two weeks of postponements caused by bad weather and nagging mechanical problems, the Atlantis lifted off on time at 11:14:55 a.m.

The countdown was unhindered by any major technical issue. After a blazing rise into the sky, the yellow flames of its booster rockets visible through holes in billowing cloud banks, the shuttle slipped into orbit without incident about 10 minutes later.

"Your long wait is over," NASA's launch director, Michael D. Leinbach, told the crew just before liftoff.

The fuel tank sensor that forced postponement of Friday's attempt appeared to work normally during early-morning fueling of the 500,000-gallon tank that held the propellant for the shuttle's three main engines. The engine cutoff sensor that failed and three others that operated properly in the hydrogen section of the shuttle's external tank proved not to be an issue.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been trying to launch the shuttle on its 11-day mission to resume construction of the station since Aug, 27. A lightning bolt hitting the launching pad, a threatening tropical storm and equipment problems with a shuttle power generator and the fuel sensor forced repeated delays.

The shuttle had to get off this weekend to avoid conflict with a Russian launching of a Soyuz spacecraft carrying a new crew to the space station on Sept. 18 . A delay would have forced NASA to wait until at least the end of September.

Back to the construction of the ISS.
Meanwhile in Japan...

JAXA Launch Delayed Due To Weather


JAXA were launching a surveillance satellite, but they have delayed their launch due to inclement weather.

宇宙航空研究開発機構は10日未明、同日午後に予定していた政府の情報収集衛星の打ち上げを11日以降に延期する、と発表した。打ち上げ場所の種子島宇宙センター（鹿児島県）の天候が悪化したため。

　情報収集衛星は3基目で、北朝鮮のミサイル施設などを監視する事実上の偵察衛星。国産主力ロケットＨ２Ａ・10号機で10日に打ち上げる予定だった。

They'll try again next week. Now that I know what it's like in the PR observation room, I can just imagine the deep sighs amongst the press. I even know that grey-haired guy in that photo handing out the PR stuff. He's a really annoying, unhelpful man.

What To Make Of This...?

Hot and Bothered By More Than The Greenhouse Effect

People got upset when a stripper turned up to a conference dinner for climate change. She was covered in balloons as the male freternity went popping the ballons with pins. Naturally the female participants were offended. The SMH report is here.

Outraged scientists stormed out of a government-sponsored climate change conference dinner in Canberra last night, after the strippers booked as entertainment left them all hot and bothered.

One attendee said many of those who walked out of the dinner at Old Parliament House were women.

"I honestly could not believe my eyes when a woman covered in balloons started prancing around as delirious male scientists popped them with a pin," the person, who asked to remain anonymous, said in an email to smh.com.au.

"This was followed by a series of women on stage dressed in almost nothing making jokes about being ridden."

Red-faced conference organisers today issued an apology for the choice of burlesque entertainment, which was stopped after about 10 minutes of a planned 45-minute routine.

However, shadow environment minister Anthony Albanese has since called for a government investigation.

"This is appalling and completely inappropriate and the Australian government should immediately investigate how on earth this occurred," Mr Albanese said this afternoon.

The dinner was the social highlight of the 17th Australia New Zealand Climate Change Forum.

The three-day event at the Australian National University was sponsored by the Bureau of Rural Sciences at the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Australian Greenhouse Office, an arm of the federal Department of the Environment and Heritage.

The Australian Research Council Research Network for Earth System Science (an education and government networking organisation) and the Managing Climate Variability R&D Program also sponsored the event.

"This is ... supposed to be a gathering of scientists at a government-sponsored event in an already male dominated industry where it is hard enough for a woman to make inroads," the attendee told smh.com.au.

"If this is the Australian Government and male-dominated scientific community's idea of conference entertainment, God help us all."

Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell told smh.com.au he was "appalled" at the inappropriateness of the entertainment . "As soon as I was told about this incident, I directed my department to immediately withdraw the $3000 sponsorship," Senator Campbell said.

Representatives from the Australian Greenhouse Office were among those who walked out.

The woman who starred in the balloon-popping show wearing fish-nets, hotpants, a bustier and a bra was Rebecca Gale, a psychology undergraduate at ANU.

So... it was more like a University student prank. If you got it, you gotta flaunt it girlie. :)
On a more serious note...

Dili In The Dumps As Downer Does His Dirty Deed


Since the changes in the (T)error laws and the weakening of my civil rights last year, I try to avoid politics, but this just needs to be said. Our Government is behaving like a bully. Damn it, I'm quoting it all:

The visit of Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer to East Timor this week is for the purpose of pressuring the East Timor Government into adopting even more reactionary, pro-Australian policies. The Australian Government was behind the recent disturbances in Dili which saw the ouster of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and his replacement by the pro-Australian Jose Ramos Horta.

Downer publicly lectured the East Timor Government on taking more responsibility for maintaining order but the intent of both Ramos Horta and Downer at this point is the undermining of the influence of the Fretilin party.

Fretilin at present holds the majority of seats in the democratically elected East Timor parliament. Elections are due next May.

Recent events in East Timor have dramatically revealed that the coup to overthrow Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri was only one step towards the far-reaching objectives of its plotters.

The carefully planned escape of Alfredo Reinado with 56 other criminals from a Dili jail last week signalled the start of yet another campaign to create instability and weaken the influence of Fretilin. Ramos Horta, who is no longer a member of Fretilin, demanded that the party "reform" itself and elect a new leadership. Ramos Horta said Fretilin members must "project themselves as a modern, all-inclusive, tolerant party".

It was the multinational force overwhelmingly made up of Australian troops which allowed Reinado to escape, and no sooner was he out of jail — where he was being held on a charge of attempted murder and for starting the disturbances in Dili last May — than he issued a call for a "people’s uprising" against the government. Only a government made up of extreme right-wing forces which would be willing to cooperate fully with the Australian Government will be acceptable to John Howard and his Foreign Minister.

Such political forces already exist among the opposition parties in East Timor, having cooperated in the past with either the Australian, Indonesian or US government agencies.

They will continue to stage incidents — the burning of houses and the murdering of civilians — targeting in particular supporters of Fretilin. Their objective is to create a climate of fear which they hope will enable them to defeat Fretilin at the elections next year.

The timing of the jail break may also be linked to the decision of the UN Security Council to send a 1600 strong UN commanded police force to East Timor to assist in stabilising the situation leading up to the elections. The UN appointed Police Commissioner is already in Dili to take up his peace-keeping mission. Stability is the last thing that the coup plotters want if they are to succeed in creating the necessary tension and fear, and image of a "failed government" or "failed state" in the country.

The decision of the UN Security Council was not to the liking of the Australian Government which argued that the army units from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal under Australian command could do the job and that the activities of the UN should be limited to providing aid for the 70,000 Dili residents who have been turned into refugees in their own country and are still too frightened to return to their homes.

Another important development was the decision of the East Timor Government to apply for membership of ASEAN which could help open many doors for the economic development of East Timor and also provide the country with a very large political support base helping the new nation to maintain its independence and its non-aligned political position in international affairs.

Another significant event was the agreement made by the East Timor government with Cuba to provide about 200 doctors to work in East Timor and for East Timor to send a contingent of students to Cuba for medical training. There is also a possibility that the East Timor government will be represented at the Non-Aligned Summit meeting to be held in Cuba in the middle of this month.

All of these developments are reasons why Alexander Downer, together with his Indonesian counterpart, went to Dili to pressure and threaten the East Timorese Government and to prepare the ground for more disruption leading up to next year’s elections.

It's a drag.