UNHEALTHY STATISTICS

Iraqis search for survivors in rubble in Ramadi, western Baghdad after a gun battle between US marines and insurgents. A survey last year estimated war had cost the lives of 601,000 Iraqis.

Iraqi deaths survey 'was robust'

The British government was advised against publicly criticising a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis had died due to the war.
The Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said the survey's methods were "close to best practice" and the study design was "robust". Another expert agreed the method was "tried and tested".

[The Lancet medical journal published its peer-reviewed survey last October. It was conducted by the John Hopkins School of Public Health and compared mortality rates before and after the invasion by surveying 47 randomly chosen areas across 16 provinces in Iraq.]

EASTER BUN

Astaroth: available Wednesdays

Astaroth appears as an ugly angel riding a dragon and holding a viper in his left hand. It is thought that this powerful grand-duke presides over 40 legions, and possibly over the East and is treasurer of hell. The Sidonians and Phlistines worshipped him in the past. Wierus mentions that he knows of past and future events, secret things, liberal arts, and the story of creation and the fall of the angels. He also believes he received an unjust punishment. Some magicians say he procures the goodwill of great lords and can be summoned on Wednesday. He is said to emit a powerful fetid odor, and to endure that, the magician should hold a silver magical ring that prevents odors under his nose.


[Dictionnaire Infernal - Collin de Plancy (1863) (paraphrased)]

INTENSIVE PHARMING

Tamiflu link to teen suicide

Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), the world's first line of defense against avian influenza, is correlated with teen suicides. This expensive and difficult-to-find drug has been linked to 64 cases of psychological disorders and two teenage suicides in Japan, according to media reports there.

In February 2004 a 17-year-old high school boy under treatment with Tamiflu died after he jumped in front of a truck.
A year later, a 14-year-old junior high student, also taking the drug for influenza, jumped to his death from the ninth floor of his condominium.

Warning of psychiatric problems with Tamiflu

A new warning label has been added to the influenza drug Tamiflu following reports of delirium and hallucinations among people – mostly children - taking the medication.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated the label after reports of more than 100 people, mostly in Japan, who suffered unusual psychiatric effects, including cases of self-injury and suicide, when taking the drug.

There have been 103 cases, 95 of them in Japan, of delirium among people with the flu who took Tamiflu and the FDA says about 60% of the affected patients were under 17. Suicide was reported in some cases.

Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche, which manufactures Tamiflu, says that nothing indicated that the drug was responsible for the neuropsychiatric problems. The FDA adds that the relationship between the bizarre behaviour and the drug was not known, but that the label had been amended to “mitigate the potential risk”.

Previously, the label had only mentioned that “seizure and confusion” have been seen in some patients.


[Millions of doses of Tamiflu are being stockpiled by governments and the World Health Organization in the event of a global flu pandemic, which could be sparked if the avian H5N1 virus mutates into a form that can easily be passed among humans.]

ARTIFICIAL FUTURE

Scientists create 'emotional' robot

Robots that bond like human children and display emotion are being developed at a British university.
The £1.68 million Feelix Growing Project, a partnership of robotic experts, psychologists and neuroscientists from around the world, aims to produce machines designed to engage emotionally with humans.
Like children, they will form attachments with their human handlers.
They will also display "emotional resonance" - an ability to mimic people's emotions to enhance positive bonding. Feelix is an acronym of Feel, Interact, eXpress.
The robots, being built at the University of Hertfordshire, will be able to see, hear, touch and judge the distance between themselves and humans.

They will recognise human body language signals, and respond to emotional states such as anger, fear and happiness.

THE JET SET

Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Electric and Raytheon's FA-18 Super Hornet (above) and Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (below).



Govt spends $6b on 'stop-gap' fighter-bombers

Australia will spend $6 billion to buy 24 advanced Boeing Super Hornet fighter-bombers as a stop-gap measure so the RAAF can maintain regional air superiority until new Joint Strike Fighters are built.

The decision spells the end of the F-111 strike bombers which will be retired, most likely without ever having dropped a bomb in anger, in 2010.

[These 24 stop-gap aircraft will cost $6 billion, or $250 million each.]


FLASHBACK: RAAF 'won't need' interim jet
October 10, 2006
The deputy chief of the air force, Air Vice Marshal John Blackburn, said defence remained confident the F-35 would be delivered on time, with the first squadron scheduled to be blasting through Australian skies by 2014.

Main course: 100 Lockheed F-35 Lightening JSFs ordered


As a result of a 1995 Memorandum of Understanding, Australia is contributing US$144 million to the F-35 JSF project.
A total price tag of $12b means the unit price is about $120m each.

However, the joint strike fighter, conceived as a versatile and affordable fighter for the US and its allies, continues to be plagued by rising costs that have boosted the per-unit US government report released Thursday.

Some critics say the F-22 or the Eurofighter may be better choices, both offering better range, dogfighting capability, and supercruise at a cost that may not be much more than the F-35 — claims that as of July 2006 are being examined in a parliamentary inquiry.

Australian defense minister Brendan Nelson has reportedly decided to opt for the Super Hornet without a detailed study of alternative aircraft types such as the longer-range F-15E Strike Eagle, or more advanced air superiority options such as the Eurofighter Typhoon. Despite its name, the Super Hornet is a larger aircraft that offers only 25% to 30% commonality with the Australian Air Force's existing Hornets; it does, however, share the same support structure.

[Geoff Elliot Troubled stealth fighter tackles first test flight]

BRUTAL PLANET

Daniele Mastrogiacomo, 52, thought he would be killed.

Captive speaks of Taliban horror

An Italian journalist freed after being kidnapped by the Taleban in Afghanistan says he saw his captors cut off the head of one of two Afghans with him.
He said his Afghan driver had been decapitated in front of him by their Taleban guards.
"I saw him being decapitated, it was horrific," he told Italian TG3 television.
"I was shaking. Obviously I thought 'it's my turn now."



Pain of Afghan suicide women

Gulsoom is 17-years-old and married. Last year she tried to commit suicide - she failed.
She set fire to herself but, against the odds, survived with appalling injuries.

Her plight reflects that of a growing number of young Afghan women, campaigners say.
Driven to desperation by forced marriages and abusive husbands, more and more are seeking release through self-immolation.
Gulsoom was engaged at the age of 12. Three years later her family married her to a man aged 40 who she says was addicted to drugs.
She was then taken to Iran. Her husband beat her regularly, Gulsoom says, particularly when he had no money for heroin.

"Once after I was badly beaten by my husband, I was in bed when I heard a voice murmuring and telling me to go and set fire to myself," she says.
"I went and poured petrol on my whole body. The flames on my body lasted for minutes. After eight days I found myself conscious in bed.
"I cared about my father's dignity - that's why I tolerated everything."

[]

COAL-MINE CANARIES

Bees dying by the millions

Honeybees are vanishing at an alarming rate from US states with losses ranging from 30% to more than 70%.
American bee colonies have been hit by regional crises before, but keepers say this is the first national crisis.
The mystery disappearances highlight the important link that honeybees play in the chain that brings fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables.

“I have never seen anything like it,” California beekeeper David Bradshaw, 50, told the New York Times.

[“Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.”]

Italian bee deaths signals woe for environment

Italian bees are been killed off by the millions and environmentalists and honey producers warned today this was a sign of a worrisome turn for the environment.
The National Beekeepers' Association UNAAPI said the country was witnessing a silent "slaughter of bees" and that Italian honey production would plummet by at least 50% this year.

"Bees are our 'sentinels of the environment', very much like butterflies and fireflies. Unlike ants, termites or coachroaches they are extremely delicate and will not adapt to a negative environment," UNAAPI Chairman Francesco Panella told ANSA.

"A bee does not survive contact with toxic substances and dies before it even reaches the hive. Pure honey, in fact, is nature's real wonder product," said Panella, distressed that the shocking mortality rate has not yet shaken the authorities and the public out of their complacency.
He claims the situation in Italy is far worse than in neighbouring France where in June environmentalists and the influential daily Le Monde drummed up a campaign highlighting the plight of French bees, claiming they were being felled by a new high-tech pesticide being marketed by a major multinational.

UNLAWFUL PRISON

David Hicks affidavit

This Affidavit provides an outline of the abuse and mistreatment I have received, witnessed, and/or heard about since I have been detained by the United States in Afghanistan, aboard US Naval vessels and US military aircraft, and at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (hereinafter "Guantanamo Bay"). I have been detained by the United States Armed Forces from December 2001 until present. I arrived in Guantanamo Bay in January 2002. I does not detail all of the abuse I have received, or witnessed, or heard about, but merely sketches some of it. I have been careful to specify what happened to me, what I saw happen to others, and what I have heard about. During the course of my interrogations, I have repeatedly asked for a lawyer and why I am not being treated as Prisoner of War.

5. I have been beaten before, after, and during interrogations.
8. I have been beaten while blindfolded and handcuffed.
11. I have had my head rammed into asphalt several times (while blindfolded).
13. I have had medication - the identity of which was unknown to me, despite my requests for information - forced upon me against my will. I have been struck while under the influence of sedatives that were forced upon me by injection.
14. I have been forced to run in leg shackles that regularly ripped the skin off my ankles. Many other detainees experienced the same.
15. I have been deprived of sleep as a matter of policy.
16. I have witnessed the activities of the Internal Reaction Force (hereinafter "IRF"), which consists of a squad of soldiers that enter a detainee's cell and brutalize him with the aid of an attack dog. The IRF invasions were so common that the term to be "IRF'd" became part of the language of the detainees. I have seen detainees suffer serious injuries as a result of being IRF'ed. I have seen detainees IRF'ed while they were praying, or for refusing medication.

[This statement was made three years ago. Hicks has been held without charge for more than five years.]

MATHEMATICS

Part of the E8 matrix. The structure is described in the form of a vast matrix. Image: David Vogan / MIT

248-dimension maths puzzle solved

An international team of mathematicians has detailed a vast complex numerical "structure" which was invented more than a century ago.

Mapping the 248-dimensional structure, called E8, took four years of work and produced more data than the Human Genome Project, researchers said.
E8 is a "Lie group", a means of describing symmetrical objects.
The team said their findings may assist fields of physics which use more than four dimensions, such as string theory.
Lie groups were invented by the 19th Century Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie (pronounced "Lee").
Familar structures such as balls and cones have symmetry in three dimensions, and there are Lie groups to describe them. E8 is much bigger.
"What's attractive about studying E8 is that it's as complicated as symmetry can get", observed David Vogan from the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
"Mathematics can almost always offer another example that's harder than the one you're looking at now, but for Lie groups, E8 is the hardest one."

[Professor Vogan is presenting the results at MIT in a lecture entitled The Character Table for E8, or How We Wrote Down a 453,060 x 453,060 Matrix and Found Happiness.]

HUMAN BONDAGE

Sudan's slave voices

Twin: Abuk Atak Deng: "I was abducted along with my two brothers, Garang and Bol. But we were taken by different men and I have never seen them again.
Garang is my twin and I do not feel complete without him. A part of me is still missing.
I was forced to marry an Arab man, Abdoubhakir. I was 13 when I had my first child. He used to beat me and I always wanted to escape.
My chance came in November 2006. The first day back I slept the whole day - my first rest for ages."

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Liquid Lakes on Titan

Radar imaging data from the flyby, published this week in the journal Nature, provide convincing evidence for large bodies of liquid. This image, used on the journal's cover, gives a taste of what Cassini saw. Intensity in this colorized image is proportional to how much radar brightness is returned, or more specifically, the logarithm of the radar backscatter cross-section.

The lakes, darker than the surrounding terrain, are emphasized here by tinting regions of low backscatter in blue. Radar-brighter regions are shown in tan. The strip of radar imagery is foreshortened to simulate an oblique view of the highest latitude region, seen from a point to its west.

This radar image was acquired by the Cassini radar instrument in synthetic aperture mode on July 22, 2006. The image is centered near 80 degrees north, 35 degrees west and is about 140 kilometers (84 miles) across. Smallest details in this image are about 500 meters (1,640 feet) across.

[The colors are not a representation of what the human eye would see.]

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Massive ice deposits found on Mars

Scientists say they have found huge deposits of ice on the south pole of Mars that are so plentiful they would blanket the planet in 11 metres of water if they were liquid.
The deposits are up to 3.7 kilometres thick and cover an area larger than Texas.

The deposits are under a polar cap of white frozen carbon dioxide and water.
They appear to be composed of at least 90 per cent frozen water with dust mixed in.
The findings have been published in the Science journal.

[Liquid water is a necessity for life as we know it.]

NEW WORLD ORDER

Cheney chides Democrats for Iraq withdrawal plans

In a speech to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Cheney said even discussion of a withdrawal [from Iraq] tells “the enemy to watch the clock and wait us out.”
And an actual pullout would send an even worse message, he said.

“If terrorists conclude attacks will change the behavior of a nation, they will attack the nation again and again,” he said.
“The only option for our security and survival is to go on the offensive … until our enemy is destroyed.”

[This business of the enemy ‘waiting us out’ makes no sense at all. ‘The enemy’ lives there Dick, they’re not going anywhere. More ...]

BIG BROTHER I

How to kill a country: the Australia-US free trade agreement

A tale about the dismantling and destruction of some of the nation's most important institutional arrangements like:
* Our rigorous Quarantine procedures that safeguard Australian agriculture from devastating exotic pests and diseases and give us a competitive advantage in world markets;
* Our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) that protects the health system against soaring prescription costs and makes medicines affordable for all Australians;
* Our Intellectual Property (IP) laws that encourage local innovators in IT and biotech, for example, without extravagant protection of incumbent firms;
* Our system of Government Purchasing programs that support Australian industry and return tax dollars to Australian residents.

[Linda Weiss is Professor of government at the University of Sydney, Elizabeth Thurbon is Postgraduate Research Co-ordinator in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of New south Wales, and John Mathews is Professor of strategic management at the Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University. This is the text of their presentation to the Evatt Foundation on 2 April 2005.]

BIG BROTHER II

Don't like ID cards? Hand over your passport

Anybody who objects to their personal details going on the new "Big Brother" ID cards database will be banned from having a passport.
James Hall, the official in charge of the supposedly-voluntary scheme, said the Government would allow people to opt out - but in return they must "forgo the ability" to have a travel document.
With one in every eight people saying they will refuse to sign-up, up to five million adults could effectively be refused permission to leave the country.

["It stretches the definition of voluntary beyond breaking point." - Phil Booth, of the NO2ID group]

GREAT DIVIDE

A few words on poverty...

The haves and the have yachts

They call themselves "the haves and the have yachts": rich London bankers and traders who drop tens of thousands of dollars for an evening of cocktails and hire "personal concierges" to get their girlfriends dresses like those worn by movie stars.
Long a hub for the world's ultra-rich, London has just welcomed an unprecedented number of newcomers into those ranks. Analysts here estimate that London's financial stars were paid a total of $17 billion in annual bonuses in recent weeks -- including more than 4,200 people who received bonuses of at least $2 million each, on top of salaries already sagging under the weight of zeros.
"There is a great deal of money sloshing about," said Tony Travers of the London School of Economics, noting that 15 years of uninterrupted growth in one of the world's most open economies has set London's financial sector swaggering.

[One out of six inhabitants of this planet struggles daily for adequate nutrition, uncontaminated drinking water, safe shelter and sanitation as well as access to basic health care. These people get by on $1 a day or less. Every day more than 20,000 die of dire poverty, for want of food, safe drinking water, medicine or other essential needs. More...]

ANTI SOCIAL

Denmark's Youth House (Ungdomshuset) destroyed by government

On 28 August 2006 the National Court stated, as the City Court did, that the right of ownership and usage of Ungdomshuset belongs to Faderhuset and it is free to evict the inhabitants.
On 1 March 2007 Ungdomshuset was cleared of its occupants by the police at about 7:00 (CET) in the morning. A 50 metre area surrounding the building was sealed off. The building was taken with assistance from a military helicopter, an airport crash tender and two boom cranes, used as a form of modern day siege towers. Special forces entered the building from the roof, the windows and the ground, while the house was covered in foam to diminish the effectiveness of possible counter attacks such as molotov cocktails.

Demolition began on 5 March 2007

[Ungdomshuset (literally "the Youth House") was the attributed name of a building located in Copenhagen on Jagtvej 69, Nørrebro, which functioned as an underground scene venue for music and rendezvous point for varying anarchist and leftist groups from 1982 until 2007. Due to the ongoing conflict between the municipal government of Copenhagen and the activists occupying the premises, the building has been the subject of intense media attention and public debate since the mid-1990s.]

ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE

The murder victim's fiance, Robert Gojceta, has taken charge of the dolphin's care but has been unable to revive her.

Dolphin mourns murder victim

WHEN a young dolphin was rescued from the Adriatic Sea, distressed and bruised, she was nurtured back to health by a dedicated trainer, who took responsibility for her care.
Now the trainer is dead, the victim of a frenzied attack by her neighbour in the Italian town of Riccione where she lived - and the dolphin is reportedly dying of a broken heart.
Tamara Monti, 37, was stabbed to death at her flat in Riccione by Alessandro Doto, 35, who lived next door with his elderly parents – had been driven mad by the incessant barking of the two dogs Ms Monti left in her flat while she was working at the dolphinarium.

Keepers at the water park said yesterday they had lost not only "a marvellous trainer" but were also in danger of losing Mary G, the dolphin that Ms Monti had reared and cared for after it was found two years ago in the harbour at nearby Ancona.
The dolphin is refusing her daily diet of milk and squid and has lost 50kg since Ms Monti was murdered.
The sea mammal's weight has fallen to just 160kg and she has failed to respond to medication for a gastric infection.

[]

IN OUR IMAGE

Pizza pan marked by super supreme being

When an image of the Virgin Mary appeared on one of their pizza pans on Ash Wednesday, the dinner ladies at Pugh Elementary School knew that it had to be more than just the cheese and pepperoni talking. This had to be a message from God. The school principal confirmed that the school kitchens seemed to have been singled out for divine intervention.

Within hours, the apparition had become the talk of Houston and the pan a focus for pilgrims. Throughout the weekend, worshippers flocked to the home where the pan is now on display to pay their respects.
"I see an image of the Blessed Mother. It's a sign that something is going to happen," one visitor, Vincent Santiago, said.

This is not the first time that the Virgin Mary's face has appeared in unlikely places.
Previous examples of simulacra -- religious images appearing on inanimate objects -- include a grilled cheese sandwich bearing the outline of the Madonna, which fetched $US28,000 on the internet for its Florida owner in 2004.

[Scientists call this phenomenon religious pareidolia, when the eye sees religious images in objects such as tree trunks and grilled cheese sandwiches.]

WATER HARVEST

Device aims to harvest water from air

A wind-driven device could provide an unlimited water supply by harvesting water from the air, says its Australian inventor.
However critics are asking if it is too good to be true.

Dr Max Whisson, a retired medical specialist turned inventor, says he has designed a highly efficient wind turbine that can run a refrigeration system to cool air and condense moisture from it.
"The wind carries in the water and [provides] the power required to separate that water from the wind," Dr Whisson said, who is based in Perth.
He says there is a huge amount of water in the atmosphere that is replaced every few hours.
This means the whole world could just use water from the air without disrupting the environment.
Whisson says the system would even harvest significant amounts of water in areas with low humidity.

[The inventor says a four-metre square device could extract an average 7,500 litres of water a day.]

Taxi safe

Taxi safe, originally uploaded by abkyah00.